rachel's continued ramblings

last year, I started out the year (and really for about the first 6 months) with weekly posts of actual pictures of the book, put together. then I started doing just the pictures, and highlighting each day. that’s what I continued doing this year, but I kind of have wanted to go back to the old way as well, because I think it’s good to show the ‘finished’ product. it’s hard to get a good idea of how project life works when you’re not seeing it, all together. and I am EVER evangelizing about this! no, I don’t sell it! no, I don’t get any commission. I just love it. it has saved me SO MUCH mom guilt, and has allowed me to get creative with my pictures in a time-saving, sanity-saving way. so anyway. here you go… I opted for the cobalt edition this year… it was a tough choice, and I’m still looking for an excuse to get the clementine, too! btw, I LOVE LOVE LOVE the new binders! I’m super-excited to learn that she’s going to be re-releasing the red edition (from 2010), which I used for la...

sunday: micah has been learning the story of noah and the flood in sunday school. this is the ark he brought home. monday: the snow is melting, but we still have a bunch in the yard. the big pile is what dave shoveled out of the trampoline last week. micah had fun exploring crunchy, slushy snow all over the backyard, and being able to climb up the pile to get into the trampoline. tuesday: cherries can sometimes be difficult for little kids to manage, with the pit you have to spit out, and all. this is how micah solves that problem. wednesday: after last week’s snowy, no power chaos, we are back to the normal and mundane. yup. so normal and mundane, the only picture I have for wednesday is layla doing homework. thursday: micah’s first day of preschool ! friday: the kids had the day off of school for a teacher work day (yeah, I know!) and layla spent a good share of the day playing polly pockets. she was excited to show me that she had them doing pushups. it’s important to get ...

so, I LOVE chicken parm. love love love it! BUT, it would seem that I’m kinda sorta allergic to wheat and dairy… well that messes that up… so last night, (fridays are usually pizza night, but dave was working late, the kids had snacked all afternoon while my dad was watching them, shane had eaten about 7 slices of pizza for lunch that someone’s mom ordered for him and his classmates while they were working on a project at the library, and I can’t eat pizza.) so I was trying to figure out something. I kind of foraged for the kids, and there was a bowl of leftover chicken soup in the fridge that dave heated up. I decided to give something a try, that I’ve heard could work, while I could make it just for myself and not have a big batch of it flop and be rejected by the whole family. I decided to try and make a paleo chicken parm. so here’s what I did (this is the recipe, for those of you who don’t catch my subtleties..): I thawed a few chicken tenderloins I had in the freezer – breast...

I really don’t think there’s much I can say about these. so I will let them speak for themselves… layla was grumpy in this picture because she realized that micah’s looked better than hers. I assured her that it’s much harder to do your own face than someone else’s that you’re looking at… (come to think of it, that will change. It’s so much easier to do my own makeup than someone else’s.) and then there was this fun little surprise I found when micah was getting into the bath… I’m sure there’s a promising future in this somewhere…

so, micah FINALLY started preschool yesterday! he was supposed to start a couple of weeks ago, but first, the teacher asked us to wait until the following week because her assistant was sick (and there would be too many kids). then it snowed for a week and school was closed. so he should have started tuesday, but I found out that the class (which he had never met or been to) was starting the day with a field trip to the fire station. not that micah wouldn’t enjoy the fire station, I just thought it would be a very weird way to start preschool for the very first time, AND I had to be someplace at the time I would have had to be at the fire station with him… so, we waited until yesterday. he was very excited (in a typical micah sort of way) and was all over it when we got there. he washed his hands like he was supposed to and found something to play with. I had to force him to say goodbye to me and give me a hug… no anxiety issues there. he was not so enthusiastic about taking a picture...

this week is pretty uniform. snow. snow. snow. and more snow. yes, where we live, this is totally photo-worthy. and even if it wasn’t, this is project life, so it’s photo-worthy anyway! there was no school all week and the kids loved it! sunday: after I decided to see if I could do any handstand pushups, the kids decided they wanted to try. (except shane, who doesn’t like to try anything unless he already knows he can do it.) layla and micah helped each other get into hand stands. it was pretty cute. if you want to know why they both have masking tape on their foreheads, you’ll have to ask layla. monday: layla and micah spent the day sledding with neighborhood kids on the hill. they had so much fun. I love this picture. I think it perfectly captures so many aspects of sledding. 3, unrelated, previously barely acquainted neighborhood kids, crammed on a sled which should not be able to hold that many people, the backwards lean, the looks of delight/fear… it’s just awesome. tuesday: ...

so, first off, in case you’re wondering why a snow storm (or any storm, for that matter) always seems to result in a power outage, allow me to explain. this is where we live: that is the view from my front door. we live in the woods. HUGE fir trees, weighed down with very heavy snow, and see those power lines? yup. they’re up on poles, not buried underground, which would be a logical place for them, out in the woods like this. at any rate, big limb, falling or leaning, or otherwise causing problems with the power lines = broken lines, blown transformers, thousands of people without power… you get the gist. so most of the people in my neighborhood have generators. most of them got their generators after the big wind storm in 2006. that was before we moved out here to the woods. we lived in civilization then, and were out for 4 days. out here, I think they lost power for something like 2 weeks. crazy. at any rate, we don’t have a generator… it’s on the list. but, we do have a wood bu...

::edit:: this is posting on the 23rd, but not really. it’s the 26th, and I’m just now getting it posted because blogger wouldn’t run on the old computer. now we’re all set up w/ a new one and all is right with the world! hopefully I’ll be caught up soon! ::end edit:: no, this isn’t last week in pictures. that would require uploading pictures, and I’m not risking that right now. the fact that I’ve even managed to get this program to open and respond is impressive to me. last week, in all of our snow, we lost power repeatedly. usually we would lose it for about an hour or two, but one day, it went out in the middle of the night, and didn’t come back on until about 4 that afternoon. really, though, I’m not complaining. some people were out for like 3 or 4 days! BUT, the result of all that on and off stuff is an apparently UNhappy computer. dave doesn’t know what’s wrong with it yet, and I’m just hoping it’s repairable. at any rate, I’ve been doing most of my computing via my phone, whic...

so, I like to exercise. like, a lot. unfortunately, it’s not always easy or affordable to do what I really want to do. I have a long list of all of the different activities I really want to do, but it’s not really feasible for me to do all, or even most of them at this point in my life. yoga ballet figure skating crossfit barre 3 hiking swimming cycling weight training pilates gymnastics soccer long walks etc, etc, etc… I’m sure I could add to it. but, even the most active person, with unlimited funds, no children, job, or other responsibilities could not make all of that happen. boo hiss, that’s life. my main restrictions are money and kid-free time. as much as I’d love to return to skating, money is going to be the biggest factor there. just for starters, I don’t really have 500 spare benjamins to drop on a new pair of boots that I can actually get my feet into without wincing, squishing, or swearing… that’s assuming I can remount my old blades. and then there’s aw...

sunday: yes, this is a little odd. after church, we took our FILTHY van through the car wash. I am always impressed by all the pretty colors they squirt on your car, so, darnit!, I took a picture! after church, carwash, and lunch, we headed out to hike the pipeline : monday: micah and I ran some errands that included grocery shopping. when we got to the car to put the groceries in, I discovered that he had dabbled in a little bit of shoplifting. apparently no one noticed the pack of gum in his hand… so I made him go back in and hand it back to an employee. **sigh** tuesday: toby has been a little insecure lately. I think because of all christmas, company, and parade of dogs though our house. roscoe and dakota are back, and shane keeps having troubles with toby sitting on his face… perhaps the two are related? wednesday: dave’s birthday present arrived! new oakleys. his last pair broke back in 2005 when he sat down funny on them on an airplane. he’s been without ever since. noti...