i missed it!

such a profound day, and i forgot!

yesterday was my 2 year blogiversary…

THAT’S NOT FOOD!

my friend, stephanie, has inspired me with her most recent post. apparently this was a topic on oprah today, i don’t watch her show, but it’s a good topic. my comment on her post (which is great – read it. the post, not my comment.), was quickly turning into a post of it’s own, so i decided to continue my vent here. it probably won’t be as eloquent as hers, but i’m climbing up on the soapbox she just got off of.

we eat CRAP!

LOTS and LOTS of CRAP!!! as a nation, it astounds me how much non-food we consume.

i’ve wondered about this for a long time, but it used to be inspired from an environmental standpoint rather than a nutritional standpoint. i wondered about all the garbage we throw out. it bothered me that you couldn’t go to the store and buy granola bars without also buying a box and 6 wrappers, that would then be thrown away. i wondered why, every time you buy salad dressing or ketchup, you have to buy a new bottle, which would then be thrown away. i wondered why, every time you buy cereal, you also buy another box AND a plastic bag… you get the idea.

so then i started thinking about different cultures around the world – people who don’t have overflowing landfills, and haven’t needed to organize massive recycling efforts in their communities because they HAVE NO TRASH! why is it they have no trash? because they actually produce their own food. with their own hands they grow it or kill it or gather it from whatever resources they have around them. that’s the way it used to be here too, you know. people used to actually grow or raise EVERYTHING they needed to survive. yes, it was hard work.

but we don’t do that anymore. we don’t do anything resembling that anymore. going to safeway and buying a box of cereal, a frozen pizza, a gallon of hormone produced milk, and a bag of chemically sprayed ‘salad’ is not the same. why? what brought about this change? technology? maybe. i don’t know. i really don’t get it either. life may be ‘easier’ for us now in some ways, but it doesn’t seem to me that anyone is any happier OR healthier than people were 100 years ago. granted, i can’t really speak for people 100 years ago because i didn’t live then, but i can speak for people today. maybe you would argue that people ARE healthier now, because the average lifespan is longer. i argue that that is only because our technology in prolonging life and treating the diseases we bring on ourselves (because of our lifestyle) has kept up pretty well with our self-destructive choices. as far as how happy we are, think of how many people you know who are stressed out, depressed, overwhelmed, etc. are people really happy? if they were, would we be constantly be so compelled to spend more and more money we don’t have trying to acquire the latest, best, biggest, whatever? it seems like people who are happy should be generally content. not complacent. content. i don’t know that i know anyone who is TRULY content.

here’s another angle that really bugs me. people used to work. actually work. now, people look down on those whose jobs involve actual work. the ‘best’ jobs are those that involve sitting behind a desk and doing something on a computer, right? so we do this, and then our doctor tells us we’re overweight, or we have high cholesterol, or we need to improve our cardiovascular health. so we go to a gym and run on a treadmill going nowhere, or pretend to climb stairs, or lift ‘weights’. and of course, after spending all those hours doing our ‘work’ and ‘exercise’ we have no time left to prepare healthy ‘real’ food, so we eat out or pull some package of something out of the freezer and heat it up.

does this seem bizarre to anyone else?

i know this post is going all over the place and i know it’s completely hypocritical. i’m not excusing myself from any of the descriptions above.

i just kind of wonder how we got here? i wonder where it is that people got the idea that it would be good to drink several cans of soda every day? i wonder why people think they don’t have to prepare food for their families. i wonder why people think that giving their kids blue cotton candy flavored yogurt is the same as feeding them something healthy.

overturning the responsibility of what we put into our bodies to strangers is just one of many very disturbing trends i see. and these are not strangers who have any interest whatsoever in your health or well-being. these are strangers who want to make money. lots of it. and they don’t really care if they make you fat or give you cancer or diabetes, or if they destroy all of the naturally occurring nutrients and minerals in the soil in which they grow that food, or if the chickens they raise can’t support their own weight… and they make that money by blindsiding people who don’t care enough about what they put in their bodies.

::sigh::

okay, well i’m off my soapbox and on to cooking dinner. i’m feeling a little sheepish about that BOX of whole wheat cous cous that’s on the menu.

an update? what’s that?

so after reading one of mary’s latest posts, i realized that i haven’t done a ‘kid update’ in goodness knows how long. probably not since we abandoned the old ‘family site’, and since we didn’t sent out christmas cards this year, it’s been at least a year since i did a ‘comprehensive’ update.

shane (10 1/2) is… hmmm… complicated. we’ll say that. in general he’s a happy kid and likes to stay active. he still hates school and pretty much anything involved in it, but we’re muddling through. he really enjoys his science class, however and is slightly less enthusiastic about drama, but doesn’t complain too much about going. this year, instead of having a major role in the play, he’s opted for a bit part along with being one of the stage managers. he loves hauling and moving and organizing grunt work stuff like that, so it should be a good fit. his reading is definitely improving, and he recently started the first harry potter book, which he’s slowly making steady progress through. he played a fabulous season of soccer in the fall, but is still resistant to any other sports. he spends most of his ‘spare’ time with our neighbor, susie, who has extensive native plant gardens and always has some MAJOR project going on. so he’s learning a lot about plants and landscaping and stuff like that. he’s kind of in that pre-teen confusion age, and bounces back and forth a lot from kid to older kid, which is fun for us. ::sigh:: he’s also become very concerned with his clothes and hair lately, an interesting development. but he’s a good kid, generally responsible and a big help around the house (with a little prodding). ;)

layla (4 1/2)is VERY sensitive right now. she’s still crazy and energetic and excessively creative, but you better not laugh at anything she says or raise your voice to her or she’ll completely dissolve into tears. she prefers to spend her time coloring, writing or drawing (especially designing clothes), singing, twirling or coming up with elaborate ideas about what she is going to do, which are usually impossible. she’s a good big sister and really enjoys playing with micah as he’s getting old enough to be a good playmate. she’s really looking forward to being old enough to play soccer in the fall. she’s still very snuggly and frequently tells us, “i want to feel you.” she also spends a lot of time pouring over books and is super-excited to have her own library card now (which i don’t let her use very often because i have a hard time keeping track of when the books are due).

micah (2) is BUSY! he has no problem asserting himself, and we frequently hear, “NO! i don’t want to!” from him. he’s doing great in the potty training department, just need to get it to transfer from external prompting, to him remembering to go himself, but i don’t anticipate any ‘issues’ with him. he’s still my pickiest eater, but is healthy and growing, so i guess he’ll survive it. he’s still snuggly and cute and tolerates lots of kisses and hugs, but he’s definitely growing out of being a baby (for real), which makes me a little sad. but he’s a lot of fun and cracks us up all the time. he also LOVES books and will frequently disappear to his room where we will find him sitting quietly in the middle of a pile of books, ‘reading’.

that’s about it for now.

sleeping cuties

this is why human children survive when their parents are ready to sell them into slavery:

this was last night, after micah had a VERY difficult time NOT screaming at the top of his lungs and climbing out of bed a million times, thus causing layla to have a very difficult time going to sleep and i was ready to leave the country forever lose it.

and then today, i went to check on micah during his nap and found this:

i love it. they’re so worth it! (and i’m totally going to come look at this around 8:30 tonight when they’re screaming their heads off and not sleeping tucked peacefully into bed.)

and early to rise…

i’ll leave it at that for now. maybe i’ll work on the ‘early to bed’ part after i master this one. ;)

i never thought it would happen, but i am about to sing the praises of getting up early. yes, me.

things change when you have 3 kids and you homeschool and you have a house you have to take care of and sanity to keep track of. one of the things i’ve discovered lately is that, although sleeping in is wonderful, life REALLY sucks when i do. i’ve also learned that it sucks significantly less if i get up early. who knew? i used to be really good about it, but somewhere along the line, i got discouraged and quit. i quit trying to make it out of bed before my kids, and somehow or other quit accomplishing the things i need to accomplish during the day. i then quit feeling good about myself, my responsibilities, my choices…

let’s compare yesterday and today, for an example.

yesterday, micah, layla and i (miraculously) woke up at 9am. wow! so much sleep! upon waking, i’m groggy and grumpy, focused only on finding the coffeepot as quickly as possible. shane, who got up an hour and a half earlier, has completed a significant portion of his school work and is clamoring for me to help him with the rest of it so he can finish and get out the door. not that i’m criticizing his initiative in DOING the work, but when i opened his books, i discovered several things that had to be done over, which made him mad. i then direct him toward his chores and breakfast, which he balks at and complains about having to do. while he does this, i stare mindlessly at the computer.  somewhere around 11, it occurs to me that layla and micah should get dressed, i manage a shower for myself, and get lunch for the kids, feeling shaky and nauseous because i’ve got nothing but coffee in me. around 1:45 shane and i finally finish his school work and he eventually leaves for his class, at which point, i take the others to costco. around 4:45pm, i’m trying to cook dinner, but the kitchen’s a mess because i’ve not unloaded the dishwasher yet, so i have to do that before i can cook. after that, kids in the bath and to bed. i’d love to just hang w/ my sweetie and finish watching the previous night’s episode of biggest loser, followed by actually going to bed together at the same time, but i haven’t done my workout yet. let me also point out that my house hasn’t been cleaned or dusted since christmas, i have a rack full of clothes to be ironed, floors that i’m starting to stick to, and MESS everywhere. why haven’t i done these things? laziness, lack of motivation, feeling like there’s not enough hours in the day? and, my bible reading habit that i was so pleased about has gone straight out the window lately.

so i decided last night, after finally completing my workout and making my way to bed at 11:30, long after dave was in bed and asleep, that i needed to get up early. so i set my alarm for 5:55am and prayed that whichever kid wandered into my bed during the night would allow me to get out of bed in the morning without waking up.

so i did it! i got up, i did my workout, read my bible and drank some coffee. while i was finishing this, shane got up and started his schoolwork, which he was able to ask me a few questions about when he needed to, micah got up and snuggled up in my lap while i finished my reading. i got them dressed, had a shower, got dressed, MADE shane do his chores, ate a bowl of oatmeal, made the beds, helped shane finish his schoolwork, and ironed 5 skirts, 1 dress, and 10 dress shirts (of varying sizes). it’s 11:37.

i don’t know what it is, but the later i sleep, the less energy i seem to have. i set myself up for a day of ZERO productivity, which, in turn, sets me up for feeling crappy about myself, and thus being grouchy and mean to everyone i live with.

so the next time i’m complaining about how much life sucks and how overwhelmed and discouraged i feel, just ask me what time i got up.

meal plan monday… um…

yeah, it’s still monday, right?

so sunday and monday are checked off already. we were out all day on sunday, visiting my aunt in poulsbo and having a late christmas w/ her. we had an enormous lunch at a fabulous restaurant called taprock, plus goodies like smiley face cookies :) so by the time we got home, we kind of scrounged, eating cereal or sandwiches for dinner.

last night, i pulled off something very uncharacteristic for me, i ‘threw something together’ and it was actually pretty yummy! at any rate, i’m out of decent ingredients w/ which to throw something together, so i have to actually go shopping today. :(

• tuesday: tater tot casserole
• wednesday: white chicken chili; sourdough
• thursday: pork chops; rice; broccoli
• friday: pizza; green beans
• saturday: leftovers (dave and i will be out – i think)
• sunday: pancakes; bacon

revisiting the 2010 bucket list

a month or so ago, i posted the beginnings of my ‘to-do’ list for 2010. i’m totally stealing this from kate and debbie, but it’s a good idea.  i had a good start of 6 items… but i know there’s way more i want to add to it.

1. spin my own yarn
2. spend more time in nature.
3. read all of jane austen’s books.
4. can my own veggies/fruits
5. acquire a sewing machine
6. re-learn to play the piano
7. exercise regularly (more days of the week than not – really!)
8. finish reading the entire bible
9. make an effort to spend time individually with each of my children
10. mellow out philosophically (if you don’t know what that means, just read a few of my posts and you’ll likely find some crazed post where i’m ranting about my strong disagreement about something generally accepted by the status quo)
11. beat myself up less (again, just read a few posts)
12. take better care of the dog. she’s 13 now and i need to make the most of the years i have left with her. (okay, this one is making me a little teary)
13. get my reading glasses
14. spend more time with my mom
15. be less boring
16. attend as many MOMS club events as possible
17. make most of my gifts (stole that one)
18. create a will
19. be more philanthropic
20. go on 10 dates with my husband

that’s probably enough… maybe too many, but i’ve got a year to do it. wish me luck! will post on my progress.

meal plan… whatever

didn’t do this earlier, although i did make a pseudo plan this week. i also did a pseudo shopping trip on tuesday. i pseudo-blew my budget last week and am trying to piece stuff together this week w/ minimal buying. =/ at this point, most of it is review…

• sunday: leftover tacos
• monday: BLTs
• tuesday: meatloaf; oven fries; green beans
• wednesday: chicken quesadillas; carrot sticks
• thursday: ??? (this is where the pseudo part of the plan comes in – guess i better figure something out quick!)
• friday: pizza; green beans
• saturday: ??? (yeah, i know it’s bad!) maybe eggs and bacon or something.

but hey, i posted it! that counts for something, right? probably not. you can’t eat blog posts!

knitted gifts

i had a few projects i managed to get finished (sort of) in time to give as gifts this year.

dave’s parents were the ‘lucky’ ones this year… his mom got the scrunchie hand warmers (that i finished the night before they left), and his dad was the recipient of the famous beer cozies! sadly, i don’t have good close-up pics of those. the red one is a rib pattern and the blue is cabled. he got to keep the beer too.

and then,

at his request, i made this hat for dave’s birthday. my original attempt to knit in a USC logo was quickly abandoned after a couple of attempts proved that this was not the right yarn (or possibly, the right knitter) to be making that happen. he found this look on a USC website and asked if i could copy it.

i also made a hat for my aunt (to match the scarf i gave her last year), but i didn’t take a picture of it. oh well. it’s black, a basket weave pattern. i was bored to death making it, but it turned out nice.

that’s it so far… i’m still working on hannah’s present and i think it might actually turn out this time! ::fingers crossed::

will definitely post pics when it’s done!

meatloaf

(no, not the singer.)

holly asked if i’d post it, so figured i’d do it here.

so as to not be accused of plagiarism, i’ll say that the skeleton of this recipe comes from the better homes and gardens ‘new cookbook – 14th edition’, but i always doctor it up a little bit.

• 2 eggs, beaten
• 3/4 cup milk
• 2/3 cup dry bread crumbs (or as many as you need to stretch the meat)
• 1/4 cup finely chopped onion (i generally use dried minced onion for convenience, but not as much)
• 2 T snipped fresh parsley (yeah right, i just shake in a bunch of dried.)
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp dried leaf sage, basil, or oregano ( i usually use a little of both basil and oregano, as well as a good shake of garlic powder)
• 1/8 tsp black pepper
• 1 1/2 lbs lean ground beef, lamb, or pork (i’ve only ever used beef)

combine everything but the meat. add the meat and mix well. lightly pat mixture into a loaf pan. bake at 350* for 1 to 1 1/4 hours or until internal temp reaches 160*. spoon off fat.

in a small bowl mix:

• 1/4 cup ketchup
• 2 T packed brown sugar
• 1 tsp dry mustard (i use prepared yellow mustard, slightly less than the ketchup)

spread over meat, bake for 10 minutes more. let stand 10 minutes before cutting into slices.

super yummy! we’re having it tonight!

meal plan monday

• sunday: waffles; sausage
• monday: chicken soup; sourdough (carried over from last week – we had leftovers on saturday instead)
• tuesday: hamburgers; carrot sticks; tater tots
• wednesday: chicken; rice; peas&carrots
• thursday: french dips; salad (we have christmas dinner on the 25th, not on christmas eve)
• friday: christmas dinner!!!!
• satuday: pizza; green beans (as if we could NOT have it!)

i did the shopping yesterday, thank goodness. i hate shopping anyway, but doing it on sunday afternoons works pretty well, because i have the potential to do it alone… although layla somehow finagled her way along. i went to qfc in redmond w/ the added bonus of being able to go to ben franklin in the same trip. managed to pick up the RIGHT yarn for attempt #5 or something of my niece’s birthday/christmas/graduation present (yes, she’s 1 – you read that right. i’m just not very optimistic about getting it done in the next decade). ::sigh::

if you teach your mother to knit…

…you might get an email at 2:58am that looks something like this:

“Dearest Daughter:

Are you supposed to have suicidal feelings when your knitting is not doing what it's supposed to do?

Is it all right if you ripped it all out and decided to start over just doing KNIT for the next few years?

Is it all right  to wake up your Dad and yell at him because he's sleeping through your knitting night-mare?

Other than that I feel fine--am going to bed--and plan to learn casting-on the first thing in the morning.

Love from MOM

P. S. Yarn does not go thru the paper shredder--surprisingly--neither do knitting needles ....”

it’s amazing what you find…

…when you’ve lost the tv remote.

our remote had been MIA for 2 days, so last night, dave tore apart the couch (not literally) in an attempt to find it. he did. but he also found, among much dust, crumbs, nuts, cereal and other junk…

• 1 shamrock BLING necklace
• 1 sample size bottle of baby lotion
• 21 cents
• 2 marbles
• 1 lego
• some sort of U shaped metal stake i’ve never seen before and have no idea where it came from
• 1 paper circle
• 1 foam circle and 1 oval
• 1 plastic knife
• 2 stitch markers
• 2 bob the builder memory cards
• 1 guitar pick
• 1 plastic play spoon
• 1 clothespin
• 1 crayon
• 1 colored pencil
• 1 hair clip
• 1 baby sock

makes you wonder what your couch has been eating lately, doesn’t it?

the shawl!!!!

i don’t know how i managed to forget to post these until now.   

the pictures really do not give the yarn justice. it’s just gorgeous. (and it only took me what, 5 and a half months to finish. HA!) i already miss it.

UNbalanced

i’m definitely one for extremes. i know this about myself. sometimes i am able to keep that in mind and the things related to it in perspective. other times, not so much. sometimes i will become overwhelmed with guilt i feel over how much i’m NOT getting done – be it with housework, homeschooling, time spent with my kids, etc. other times i will just become confused over what is going on in my own head. i try to make sense of the various (and often contradictory) extremes that are fighting for position in my head and then start to question my sanity. how can i feel this when just yesterday i whole heartedly believed in that?  i habitually set unrealistic standards for myself, my family, my children, based on what i see elsewhere, and then feel distressed or disappointed when reality doesn’t agree with the idealized version of the situation i’ve been carrying around in my head.

at any rate, i’ve had a rough couple of weeks. i guess i just feel like that by the age of 33, i would have figured out who i am. it seems like i should have a firm grasp on what i believe in and hold to be important. yet i feel more lost than ever. i’ve been trying to sort out who i am as a person. as a wife. as a mother. as a child of God… and it just seems like i should have sorted SOMETHING out by now.

i became very discouraged recently. i’m not sure exactly what set me off initially. probably one of those series’ of events that, individually, seem harmless enough, but together created some sort of chemical reaction that caused me to implode. as some point i realized that a lot of what i felt strongly about was causing me to alienate myself from people that i love. i found myself offending people unintentionally and walking around with this high and mighty, judgmental attitude that was VERY distressing to me. in general, i think i’m a pretty friendly person. i can be kind of shy with strangers, but i LOVE my friends and family and somehow or other i was walking around with this attitude that everyone was wrong most of the time… including me. i was NOT feeling like a very nice person. so, extremist that i am, rather than just working on the bad stuff, i had to throw out everything.

then i read the news about little josie duggar, born at 25 weeks and weighing only 1 lb, 6 oz, followed shortly thereafter by news of another friend who, in the second trimester, had lost her baby. i lost one at 10 weeks and it was the most devastating thing i’ve every experienced… i don’t know if there’s any comparison there. it seems to me that the longer you have that baby, the worse it would hurt, but i don’t know. the selfish part of me is glad i don’t know. i hope that doesn’t sound insensitive. at any rate, news like this causes me to look at my 3 healthy children and wonder why i don’t appreciate them more. why i resent it when they require my attention? is this NOT what parenting is about? i suppose guilt is my middle name, so why not indulge in it? i started to feel like i didn’t deserve these children, like God made a mistake in making me their mother. wouldn’t they be better off with someone who cares more? who has more energy? more patience? more creativity? and in the midst of all that, i made the mistake of looking at a blog i used to read. it’s the blog of a friend of a friend, but i knew she was pregnant and wondered if she’d had her baby yet. but then i had to keep reading. there’s a reason (other than the fact that i don’t actually know her) that i quit reading her blog. the person is one of those over-achieving types – well, at least it seems that way. she puts a lot of pictures on her blog and from what i can see, she’s the anti-rachel. as in her house is spotless, there’s no clutter, everything is decorated by someone who knows something about decorating, she’s disgustingly crafty, homeschools her kids (who always wear matching, coordinated outfits that are clean), and is always posting about fun places they’ve gone and projects they’ve done, or cute little parties they’ve thrown, complete with all the food and decorations and ‘special’ stuff she’s made herself for her children. UGH! guilt personified.

so there i am, wallowing in guilt over all the stuff i don’t do, and the children i don’t appreciate, and the house i haven’t cleaned, and the parties i don’t throw, and the crafts i don’t do, and why is it so hard for me and so easy for everyone else, and yada yada yada. instant depressed rachel. yes, i know, it all sounds SO stupid. and today, i can see that. today i can write about it with the right perspective.

for the most part, episodes like this are bad for me. i know this. i hate when i get like this and the unpleasantness that comes with it and the fact that my family has to deal with that. but at the same time, it can kind of shake up my complacency and cause me to realize that the things i feel bad about are generally areas that i CAN stand to improve, just not necessarily to the extreme i was obsessing over. i DO need to be nicer about things. proverbs 16:18 says, “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.” ya think? looking back i can see that i set myself up for that one. my job is to make sure that my heart and my life is right before the Lord, and to encourage others, but never to judge them. also, i DO need to appreciate my children more and my attitude needs to be more loving, understanding and patient. galatians 5:22, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindess, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.” i have had a major lack in all of these departments lately. i know that comparing myself to others is generally destructive, but i also know that there is much to learn from others, i just have to have the right attitude about it.

i know how blessed i am.

update on my feeble attempts to create new habits…

a couple weeks ago, i had a post about my pathetic housekeeping abilities, lack of motivation, bad habits, etc. etc. etc… i talked about different systems i’ve tried in the past and all of that, and was greatly inspired to put something together again, to try and remedy the pig sty i live in. so in my fit of motivation, i ordered the book from the library and made a trip to staples to buy a new, smaller cardfile box and some new 3x5 cards.

so this is my version of how this works. if you want the whole scoop, read the book. if for no other reason than it’s hilarious!

in my cardfile, i have 12 dividers for the months of the year and 31 dividers for the days of the month. i also have index cards in white, yellow, blue and pink. i want to get a few other colors as well, so i can give a color to dave and another to shane, and eventually a color to layla and micah, so everyone has their own cards.

1 card = 1 chore. right now, with a couple exceptions, all of the cards in the box are mine. however, dave has kindly asked me how he can help and be supportive, and i just told him to check the box and if there are any cards in it that haven’t been done, DO THEM!

i have my chores divided up into daily, weekly, monthy/seasonally/yearly chores. blue cards are for daily chores (laundry, dishes, dusting, etc.) , yellow are weekly (showers, floors, sheets, etc.), white are all the rest (washing walls, flipping mattresses, etc.). i’ll get to the pink cards later and i’m still on the fence over whether or not they’re necessary.

i have the days of the week lined up with a plan for a certain area to be cleaned/attended to. this works best for me because then it’s not like i know i have to spend all day cleaning the entire house ever. just a little bit every day. i put all of my blue daily chore cards in front of the number divider for today. the yellow ones get distributed in front of the dividers for the days of the week they go with and the white cards get distributed throughout the rest of the months accordingly. at the start of a new month, i move the white cards to dates on which i intend to do them.

so to get specific, here’s what my weekly plan looks like:

• monday: floors and windows
• tuesday: ironing
• wednesday: living room
• thursday: kitchen/dining room
• friday: bathrooms
• saturday: bedrooms
• sunday: menu/grocery shopping

my weekly chores correspond with the area of the house being dealt with and you can probably figure out what’s involved in that, so i won’t list all of those.

i will list my daily chores though, because they’re the biggest key to success, i think. i’m a very day-to-day kind of person. planning ahead makes me feel nervous and boxed in and afraid that some unforeseen event will spoil the plan i made and stuff like that really stresses me out. (i know, i need help.) if i can keep on top of my daily chores, the weekly ones are easier to accomplish. major cleaning is less major, because all week i’ve been doing minor maintenance. keeping up with the daily stuff is what saves my sanity! these are my cards for what i attempt to accomplish throughout each day:

• unload dishwasher and put away dishes
• check what’s planned for dinner and thaw/prepare anything if necessary
• make beds (shane does his own)
• bible reading
• wash and dry one load of laundry
• bathroom wipe-down – hall bathroom (i use a clorox wipe on the counter, faucet, knobs, and toilet surfaces)
• bathroom wipe-down – master bathroom
• fold and put away laundry (i split the laundry up into 2 cards purposely because i would often get the first part done and then the load would sit in the dryer until i needed the dryer and then it would sit in the basket)
• wipe dining table
• wipe stove and kitchen counters
• take out compost
• load and run dishwasher
• vacuum diningroom, kitchen, hall, livingroom, bedrooms (shane is in charge of tidying up first)
• make coffee (i do this the night before and it is my #1 sanity saver!)

after i have completed a card, i move it so it’s in front of the next day’s divider (or the appropriate one for next week if it’s yellow card, or in front of the appropriate month if it’s white).

of course, this is all IDEAL. these are my goals. should i ever actually accomplish every card in the box, the earth would reverse it’s rotation, hell would freeze over, and the sun would likely fall out of the sky. i’m probably the worst about the white cards. when the card for “clean oven” comes up, i’m quick to think of an excuse for why i can’t do it right then and shuffle it quickly to the next month. i get very scarlet o’hara about stuff like that… i’ll think about it tomorrow.

at any rate, i’m trying. i still haven’t found my magic motivator… if you find it, let me know!

meal plan monday

did the shopping yesterday – thank goodness i’m DONE.

• sunday: scrambled eggs; sausage patties; toast
• monday: chicken burritos
• tuesday: white chicken chili; sourdough
• wednesday: advent dinner/service @ church
• thursday: tacos
• friday: pizza; green beans
• saturday: chicken noodle soup; sourdough

can you tell i have a lot of chicken in the freezer and little else?

interesting discoveries

i discovered last night, at dave’s company christmas party, that layla is TERRIFIED of santa claus. about 10 minutes later, i discovered that she’s also terrified of the grinch. yup. there were a couple of costumed visitors at the party which made the party less than a party for us. we didn’t have a bad time, and it was a very laid-back atmosphere, but layla spent the entire time keeping track of those two characters and making sure that they were no where near her. she didn’t venture more than 2 feet from us the whole night and practically climbed us every time one of them was in view. fortunately, santa claus was very kind and gently tried to win her over by offering her a candy cane and having little conversations with her. eventually she was willing to take the candy cane, gave him a tentative high five, and actually said thank you to him audibly. sitting on his lap for a picture was completely out of the question.

other than that it was fun and the city was beautiful in the dark, of course. dave’s building is opposite the downtown macy’s so it was thrilling to walk outside and be standing right under the big star (it’s still the ‘bon star’ in my mind). we rode the carousel and checked out a wonderful set-up of toy trains in a display window. it all felt very christmassy, which i guess is kind of the point!

meal plan monday

it’s back. i skipped last week because i was lazy. we mostly just ate out of the freezer and i don’t even think i went grocery shopping at all. this week we’re still eating out of the freezer a little bit, and i already did the shopping yesterday, since i was already out at fred meyer doing my christmas shopping (SO thankful to have a dad who retired from fred meyer and has a perpetual employee discount!). so other than a small costco run i have to make later this week, i’m DONE already!!!!

• sunday: french toast; bacon
• monday: tater tot casserole (the spare i put in the freezer last time i made it)
• tuesday: mac & cheese w/ dogs; peas and carrots (the kids will be SO happy!)
• wednesday: advent dinner/service at church
• thursday: beef barley soup; sourdough (also out of the freezer from last time)
• friday: pizza; green beans
• saturday: chicken of some sort and veggies of some sort (yet to be determined after i go to costco and get the chicken)

woohoo!

holiday?

so i’ve had a skeleton of this post bouncing around in my head for a couple of weeks now. i’m not even really sure what the point of it is, or what my opinion on the matter really is, except that it’s something that’s kind of irritating me.

have you noticed that christmas has been, more or less, completely deleted? listen to your radio. watch the commercials on tv. read the ads in the paper. nothing. it’s like ‘christmas’ has become a dirty word.

now before anyone gets their dander all up, this is not a particularly religiously-inspired post, not that i disagree with the idea that ‘Christ’ should remain the center of ‘Christ’mas.  but that’s not what this is about.

i’m a ‘word person’. i love language. i love the idiosyncrasies that that come with spoken and written language. i love that humans have the ability to string letters and words and sentences together to create something beautiful, or funny, or clever, or ANYTHING! it’s just a wonderful thing. i love that we can trace sayings or pronunciations or roots back to who knows where and stuff like that. in other words, i’m a total nerd. but that’s also beside the point. my point is, that it seems like popular culture (or whoever is in charge of it) has decided that the WORD ‘christmas’ is bad, and should be avoided and replaced with a non-specific, totally generic term like ‘holiday’.

again, i will break into my rambling thoughts to point out that i am aware of the whole PC angle here. i know that not everyone celebrates christmas, and there are other ‘holidays’ which are celebrated this time of year, etc, etc, etc…

however, it’s not like christmas has disappeared, or has been deemed unacceptable, just the word.

the retailers still encourage us to do our ‘holiday shopping’. while gifts are given for hanukkah as well, i’m not convinced that the mass marketing of chia pets, salad shooters and the clapper are aimed at hanukkah shoppers. (btw, have you ever noticed how those things only show up in stores this time of year? i think it’s hilarious and i LOVE the commercials. they’re the same ones they’ve had for the last 20 years!) we’re supposed to buy stocking stuffers too? do people hang stockings for kwanzaa? or new years’? not only that, we keep getting reminded of how many shopping days are left until december 25th. yup, you know. that non-specific holiday that happens to be on december 25th.

santa claus still shows up at all the malls and we’re supposed to dress our kids up and make them stand in long lines to tell him what they’ve been good all year and have their picture taken with him. correct me if i’m wrong, but i’m pretty sure santa is associated with christmas.

we’re supposed to send ‘holiday’ cards. yup. cards that say ‘happy holidays’ but are covered with pictures of christmas trees or nativity scenes or santa claus. hmmmm….

we hang ‘holiday’ lights on our houses, drape them over our bushes, set up elaborate ‘holiday’ displays in our yards. now, i realize that i don’t have a lot of jewish friends, but do people put giant inflatable homer simpsons dressed as santa claus or snowglobes with reindeer in them or in their yards for hanukkah? really?

and for some reason, all of the ‘holiday’ decor, is really christmas decor. no really. go to target. look at that section. it’s all christmas trees and santa claus and elves and holly and stuff like that. have you put up your new years’ tree yet? your winter solstice tree? it is so NOT generic. there’s a separate hanukkah section. and for some reason, it’s specifically called ‘hanukkuh decor’. why is that okay, but ‘christmas’ isn’t?

don’t tell me it’s because christmas is traditionally a religious holiday. if that were the problem, then people who don’t associate themselves with the religious traditions of christmas would just not celebrate it. and christmas has LONG been much more to a good share of the christian and non-christian general public (of the west, at least). easter is definitely a religious holiday, but it’s okay to buy easter baskets and easter eggs and easter decor… and besides, is hanukkuh not a religious holiday too?

i don’t want anyone to think that i’m picking on hanukkah here. that’s not my intention. i’m just using it as an illustration for why i’m wondering why christmas is NOT okay.

i guess i feel like if people are that offended by christmas, then maybe they shouldn’t celebrate it. instead it seems like everyone has to go through this crazy charade of doing everything we’ve always done for christmas, but pretending that it’s just not called christmas!

i know, in the grand scheme of things, this really doesn’t matter. i choose to put up christmas lights on my house. if i send cards, they will be christmas cards. it’s just that the constant barrage of advertising and all things associated with christmas partnered with the blatant absence of the word gets a little irritating.

so, if you celebrate christmas, then i wish you a ‘merry christmas!’ if you don’t then i don’t. i wish you a happy time celebrating whatever it is you celebrate. i just don’t understand why there’s this double standard of not being able to specify that the holiday you’re celebrating is christmas.

i hope no one is offended by this. just me, analyzing things like i usually do and wondering what the fuss is all about. if you’re in the ‘holiday’ camp, i’d love to hear why, so please comment, but be nice. it’s purely sociological curiosity and a bit of language-inspired irritation that arises in me when stuff just doesn’t make sense.

can someone please give me my kid back?

i’m experiencing a bit of frustration lately. okay, a lot. and it’s exhausting. something happened to my sweet, wonderful, bestest little boy ever and he has been replaced with a TWO YEAR OLD! ugh. i’ve been quite spoiled in the last two years. as a baby, micah was super-content and never required more than his fair share of attention. a little later, he discovered climbing and my biggest challenge was trying to keep him from falling on his head. for the last year or so, he’s been so low maintenance, i’ve REALLY gotten spoiled. last spring, i discovered that he was great for easy bedtimes. plunk him in the crib, give him a couple books, say night night, and that was it! a few tears here and there, but more often than not, would fall asleep without much fuss. he was also really good at entertaining himself and would disappear into his bedroom to read books. he was also mostly trustworthy about putting stuff in his mouth or other ‘dangerous’ type things. i could point at a burner, say ‘hot’ and he would walk away.

well, now i can’t turn my back 5 seconds without him getting into trouble! last week we had to say good bye to the crib because he could climb out of it, so now naps are a rare luxury. he runs away everytime you want him to do anything. he gets into layla’s coloring supplies and colors on EVERYTHING. he can reach anything i can by pushing a chair over or climbing onto the counter. he’s back on the table every other minute. he tries to help himself to the fruit basket (it’s a hanging fruit basket) all the time. he’s started playing in the toilet again. i got out the door knob covers again, but he already took one off once. his favorite ‘toys’ are things he’s not supposed to have. he likes to get on a stool and examine the contents of the junk drawer. he likes to pull shane’s school things off the shelf and scatter them all over the floor. toys are of very little use to him right now. the only thing he does with toys is dump them out all over the floor and then start chucking them across the room, OR hits people with them. SO fun. and he’s not interested in any of them for longer than 5 minutes, if that! UGH! yes, i realize he wants attention, but given that i’ve got a homeschooling 4th grader in the house, and a 4 year old as well, there are times i NEED him to entertain himself!

and then there’s the scary factor. last night, while dave, shane and i were all standing in the kitchen, micah sat down in the middle of the floor, RIGHT NEXT TO US, and proceeded to pull the jug of dishwasher detergent out of the child-locked cabinet under the sink. dave looked down and noticed him as he was pulling off the dried-on dribbles and putting them in his mouth and wiping it onto his face! hello!!!! i wiped a big blob of this stuff off of his eyelashes and washed out his mouth and gave him a big cup of milk, but i have to say, i stayed up VERY late last night so i could be sure he was okay… yes, he’s fine - he couldn’t have gotten very much in, but good grief! i always wondered who those kids were that you heard about who drank bleach or gasoline… well, now i know. sheesh!

thank goodness he’s still cute.

i know layla went through this too. starting around 18 months or so, she lost all interest in toys and only wanted to play with the mail, the laundry, important documents or other things that were not for her. i don’t think we ever really solved it, mostly just did damage control, and eventually she discovered coloring and that was that.

shane NEVER went through anything like this. he would play with cars or trains or whatever for hours. HOURS! he was very self-entertaining, never got into trouble.

at any rate, life is somewhat difficult right now. i’m feeling worn out. i didn’t get a shower in until 1:15 today when micah (miraculously) took a short nap. i used to be able to do that without worrying, but not now. and since he can get out of bed on his own, i’m not really comfortable doing it before he wakes up either (on the off chance that i should be able to drag myself out of bed before him). layla is kind of emotional right now as well, and shane is his usual highly-distractable, schoolwork-hating self, which leaves me frequently with 3 kids who require my undivided attention. right.

okay, sorry this was kind of a long ramble/rant/whine. life’s really not so bad, as long as i can keep micah in one piece and maintain some semblance of my sanity, i guess we’ll be okay. wish me luck!

2010 ‘bucket’ list

so i have a few friends who did this sort of thing last year and i like the idea. so i’ve been thinking about doing one of my own. it’s different from new years’ resolutions in that it’s not stuff like, “work out 3 times a week” or “clean out the garage”… not that those are bad things to be doing. this is more like a bucket list. stuff i want to do before the year ‘dies’. i don’t have a lot so far, but i figure i’ll keep adding to it as i think of things and hopefully have something by the time this year dies.

1. spin my own yarn
2. spend more time in nature.
3. read all of jane austen’s books.
4. can my own veggies/fruits
5. acquire a sewing machine
6. re-learn to play the piano

meal plan monday!

two weeks in a row and here we go!

• monday: beef-barley soup; sourdough
• tuesday: chicken; beans and rice; salad
• wednesday: tater tot casserole
• thursday: thanksgiving!!!
• friday: pizza; green beans (duh)
• saturday: leftovers
• sunday: scrambles; toast

there you have it. i’m using the left-over yummy pot roast from last week for my soup tonight. OMG, it was SO good. i made the best gravy EVER with it too. some of that might find it’s way into the soup as well… okay, i’ll stop. i know everyone (myself included) is gaining weight just reading this!

i mentioned last week about husbands being super helpful in the inspiration department… well, mine came through for me this week. NOT. when i asked him if there was anything in particular he was craving this week, he responded with, “turkey.”

yeah… what a turkey.

habits

we all have habits. some good, some bad, some indifferent. a lot of the time i will be frustrated with myself, blaming the things i am displeased about on ‘personality traits’, but really, it’s just bad habits. i am not naturally a ‘clean freak’ kind of person, and it takes a LOT of motivation to cause me to WANT to clean. this is not to say that i enjoy living in a mess! i guess you could say that i’m a clean freak trapped in a slob’s body. this is an endless source of frustration for me. over the years i’ve tried several ways to ‘fix’ this problem, some with great success, others with minimal, but nothing seems to stick. i’ve read countless books, subscribed to websites, made to-do lists, bought or created tools with which to organize my cleaning… as if somehow that process would cause the house to be clean.

my best effort came from a system described in the book sidetracked home executives by pam young and peggy jones, aka the ‘slob sisters’. these were women like me, homemakers that missed the boat on the whole cleaning and organizational thing. i loved this book and could SO relate to their woes. their system involves a card file in which you store 3x5 index cards which have your chores written on them. you organize these by jobs which must be done daily, weekly, monthly, yearly, etc. the cards are then distributed throughout the week, month, etc. and rotated through as you complete the chores. this worked great for me. i had a lot of fun creating this (there’s that aspect of my personality that likes to get distracted by the lesser details of projects like this) and for awhile, the system worked well for me. it was while we were still living in ohio. shane was in kindergarten, layla was just shy of a year old, i was finishing up my BA, and frequently watching my 1 year old niece during the day. yet i made this work. the house was clean, the clutter was under control (for the most part), we ate real meals every night, the laundry was caught up (and this was when i was hanging everything out to dry) we were able to have drop-in company and overnight guests w/out a major production, freak-out, break-down or frantic stashing of stuff in closets behind closed doors.

and then we moved.

i never got in the habit again.

they say it takes 21 days to create a habit. i have to say that it’s pretty unfair that it takes that long to create one, but only one day to completely derail it.

i have all sorts of excuses. i found the system a little patronizing. it seemed to me that you shouldn’t need a card for every little step of cleaning the bathroom (clean toilet; scrub sink; wipe counter; polish faucet; wipe mirror; scrub tub; empty garbage; sweep floor; mop floor; change towels; etc.). i figured that if i just put in a card that said ‘clean bathroom’ that should be enough. i think i kind of sabotaged myself with that, and in other ways too. i tend to be a perfectionist and an extremist. if i can’t do something all the way, i would rather not bother at all. therefore, if i didn’t get something done, i would feel bad about it, i would figure there was no point in trying, if i wasn’t able to do it all. another aspect of the system is delegating jobs. kind of like giving your husband and kids their own chores. but then i didn’t know what to do if they didn’t do it. i felt bad, or even resentful, if i kept having to cycle their cards through, undone. it drove me nuts actually, but then i didn’t want to be a nag either. at any rate, i had all sorts of excuses for why this wasn’t working, and so i quit. my cardfile is still sitting on the shelf right next to me right now… hmmm…

the thing i’ve learned from all of this (and my many other attempts as well), is that there’s nothing out there that will work unless i actually DO it. the thing i’ve been searching for, the ever-elusive pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, is the book, website, tool, system that will cause me to WANT to get off my butt and keep my house clean.

let me assure you, this DOES NOT EXIST.

somehow, this i’ve allowed this lack of motivation, this tendency toward laziness or distraction (ahem, knitting? reading? facebook? blogging?) to become a legitimate excuse. somehow, the fact that i don’t WANT to clean out the microwave or wipe the windows, and the world won’t end if i don’t is enough for me to justify NOT doing it. i hate that. then i’d get all depressed about not doing it, which is a real motivation killer. what a great cycle. so helpful.

it’s time for me to create some new habits. i know it’s not impossible. i have made new ones over the last few years, that i’ve been keeping really well. bed making, for instance. i make the beds (mine, layla’s and micah’s) just about every day – weekdays, at least. dishes, i run the dishwasher every night and try to make sure i unload it every morning. i HATE when dishes get piled up on the counter or in the sink, and it’s just so much easier to dump them immediately into an empty dishwasher. meal planning… as my last post would indicate, this has become a GOOD, necessary habit. the one i’m the most pleased about is my daily bible reading. this is something i’ve always known i SHOULD do, but never have been able to make it a habit. i’ve not been perfect about it, but more often than not, i do it. oh, and since we’ve had sophie back with us, i vacuum EVERYTHING every night. this also causes the floor to have to be tidied up (this has become one of shane’s chores), which is always a HUGE improvement. when you have little kids in the house, it’s a never-ending battle, but life is so much better when you’re not tripping over the same toys for days. okay, that’s not exactly realistic. we do trip over the same toys, but that’s just because they got strewn back out on the floor, NOT because we left them there! ;)

i kind of wish i had someone who is in the same position as me, who would be willing to be my ‘accountability’ partner on this. kind of like how people do better about going to the gym or working out if they have someone they go with… hmmm.. any other slobby people out there want to do this with me? i’m serious. help!

meal plan monday

yup! it’s back. i have no idea why i quit doing these, but i think it was a bad idea. i like getting ideas from other people about what their families eat for dinner, so i guess i figure they might enjoy seeing what we eat.

so, without further ado, here we go this week!

• monday: meatloaf; peas; mashed potatoes
• tuesday: loaded baked potatoes; salad
• wednesday: chicken noodle soup; cheese & crackers
• thursday: pot roast; potatoes; carrots
• friday: pizza; green beans (duh)
• saturday: leftovers
• sunday: waffles; sausages

so there you go. sadly, i have yet to do my shopping. UGH! ::dislike dislike dislike:: i figure i’ll do it tomorrow afternoon when shane’s at his science class, since i have the stuff for dinner tonight (and he’s the catalyst for making a truly hellish shopping trip). i think i’ll get what i can at costco, since i have to go there to pick up a few things on the list anyway… may as well see if i can get as many things as i can there.

people are frequently surprised when i mention that i plan menus every week. honestly, i can’t imagine NOT doing it. okay, i can, because there have been times (hellish, disorganized times where ate a lot of mac and cheese or made multiple trips to the store – you can guess how well i liked that!) that i didn’t plan our meals. but pretty much, since dave and i have been married, i’ve planned meals. it makes things SO much easier. the thought of NOT doing it now is just bizarre to me. i guess i kind of depend on it. for one thing, i’m not the kind of person who has the sort of cooking repertoire that i can open a cupboard and throw things together. for another, if i go to the store without a list, i wander aimlessly and attempt to come up with good ideas, but can never remember recipes well enough to get everything, or i’ll buy something we already have at home, or not buy something i thought we did have at home. in other words, not planning is just a big ole mess!

if you’re not in the habit of doing this, let me give you a couple tips. if someone as domestically and organizationally challenged as me can make this work, so can you.

• print off a blank calendar page and stick it on the fridge or other OBVIOUS surface in the kitchen. i use these ones: http://www.thehouseholdplanner.com/products/calendars/ i used to use the ones that were totally blank, but i’ve decided that it’s nice to have the dates and holidays already listed since it reminds me if there’s something obvious, like thanksgiving, coming up.
• look at your regular calendar before you plan. this way you know what nights are ‘normal’ nights and which ones will have family members absent, or if you won’t be home at all, etc. i know that mondays and wednesdays right now need to be meals that are a little lighter and less involved, since dave and shane both scoot off to soccer practice at 5:30. we also eat earlier those nights so whatever i’m making has to be done sooner than usual.
• make your shopping list at the same time you make your menu plan. look in your cupboards/pantry, fridge and freezer as you’re doing this. use stuff you already have, especially if it’s something that will go bad. make sure you look at your recipes to see if there’s some obscure ingredient you forgot about that you need to buy.
• think about having weekly staples. we have pizza on fridays and we have breakfast for dinner every sunday. this gives you a few ‘no-brainer’ nights, because it is seriously hard to come up with 7 yummy and creative meals every week. you WILL burn out, and those staples can be a lifesaver.
• consider making double or triple batches of things like casseroles and soups. if you’re already cooking one, it’s not that much harder to make two and then freeze one. the library has loads of books on ‘freezer cooking’ or ‘once a month’ cooking that have tips for stuff like this and recipes that lend themselves well to freezing. i haven’t gotten that far into it, but it’s just common sense to make extra and have a freezer full of meals you can pull out in a pinch or when you’re having one of those burn-out weeks where you can’t think of anything that sounds good. i wish i’d made this a habit earlier. i would have loved having a freezer full of stuff when i was newly pregnant and the thought of everything made me turn green.
• if you get stuck, ask your family if there’s anything they’re craving lately. although, if your husband is like mine, you might get the answer ‘food’ more often than you’d like.
• finally, keep your menus. i have a stack of them on my fridge, behind the current month, going all the way back to january of last year. this also, can be a lifesaver when you can’t seem to think of anything. you can also make notes on them if you try a new recipe. sometimes a new recipe will totally bomb – either no one liked it or it was too hard to make or whatever. you can make a note to NEVER make it again, so you won’t find yourself flipping through the same cook book and thinking, again, that that recipe might sound good. NO! on the other hand, there might be a new recipe that went over really well, and you can put stars or smiley faces or whatever cheesy notation you want on it so you remember to put it into your family’s rotation of favorites.

i hope that’s helpful. feel free to comment with questions or advice of things that have worked for you! happy meal planning!

no aggression issues here!

fyi: don’t mess with this little girl.

hello again

my mom actually complained the other day about my lack of posts lately. REALLY. i told her that i’d had nothing to write about. at any rate, here’s my update for now, in relation to recent things.

we did decide to trick or treat. it was fun. shane’s mario costume actually came together pretty well, thanks to a little help from my friends. layla’s flower costume also happened, barely, also with a little help from my friends. (are you detecting a theme here?) micah’s monkey costume was borrowed from a friend. (for some reason, i have a beatles song wandering through my head right now, do you?)

here they are:

 

as i’m writing this, it’s reminding me of just how blessed i am to be a part of this community, family, neighborhood, etc. let me expound that part about a little help from my friends:

we’ll start with shane. he got the idea to dress up as mario after his friend, sean, mentioned that he was going to be luigi. so i chatted w/ trudy about what she’d gathered so far. she mentioned a green shirt she found at target, a link for the overalls and a hat she’d found on amazon. i grabbed the shirt (red, of course), and she ordered a red hat at the same time as sean’s green one. her husband found some mustaches and picked up two. i mentioned on facebook that i was having trouble finding overalls and my friend, tina, mentioned she had some he could borrow. PERFECT! they were a little big, which is fine because mario is a bit on the chubby side, so we stuffed a pillow in, and he was pleasantly plump. viola!

layla had decided she wanted to be a flower. i have to say this costume got the most attention while out trick or treating. she wanted her head to be the flower and her body to be the stem. i came up with the idea of the pot. our neighbor, susie, does a little gardening (that’s an understatement), so i figured she might have a pot we could use. she gave us an old, lightweight, plastic pot, big enough for layla to fit in. dave cut out the bottom, but we needed a way to keep it up. i remembered my friend, angie had mentioned that her daughter used to wear suspenders to keep her pants up. perfect! i sent a quick email and secured the suspenders. i got layla a green hoodie to be the stem and made the petals out of felt, glued around a headband. we had a little trouble keeping them from drooping, but borrowed some safety pins from susie and my mom and fixed the problem. layla and her friend robin, the black cat.

i didn’t know what to do about micah. i hate spending money on a costume that will only get worn once, and with him being the littlest, there’s no one behind him to wear it in a few years. :( so i sent out a mass email to my MOMS club to see if someone had a costume he could borrow. i got so many responses and wound up with a bagful from my friend, summer, to choose from. he wound up being a monkey and was SO cute i could hardly stand it. his costume had a tail – i think that was the kicker for me. later in the evening (after trick or treating) he discovered the tail and thought it was really hilarious. as did i.

  discovering his tail.

i have great friends and i’m so thankful for everyone who helped me pull this off! we had a blast and i’m glad we went.

   mario and luigi after their mustaches got too itchy!

micah’s song

winkle winkle witto TAR!

howa wuh-wuh what a ARE!

uppabubba … HIGH!

lika dima inna GUY!!!!

winkle winkle witto TAR!

howa wuh-wuh what a ARE!

to trick or treat or not to trick or treat… that is the question…

so i appear to be having a halloween dilemma.

i’ve always ‘celebrated’ halloween. you know, we carve a pumpkin, dress up in costumes, go ring doorbells and get candy.

i did it when i was a kid. my kids have done it.

but that’s not to say i feel entirely comfortable with it. i haven’t looked into it a lot, but i am aware of the sketchy, pagan history of the holiday, and it does kind of disturb me that that’s what we continue to celebrate. and i do remember at some point, my mom expressing concern over the holiday and kind of wanting to ‘quit’.

that said, what most people ‘celebrate’ as halloween is a far cry from where it came from. i don’t think that putting a kid in a bunny costume and ringing the neighbor’s doorbell is all that evil. dressing up is fun. candy is fun.

but the bible warns about associating with witchcraft and mediums and various evil stuff like that. ***edited to add*** and as a christian, i believe that following the bible’s guidelines is important. does this not qualify as one of those situations?

and then there’s the issue with the massive OVER-commercialization that drives me nuts. think of all the people making outrageous sums of money over all this. you have to have a new costume EVERY year. and have you seen what costumes cost? good grief. and then there’s the copious amounts of candy you have to buy, and the decorations, and a trip to the pumpkin patch (unless your pumpkin patch is just out back), and the lights, the window clings, the bats that fly around in a circle, the fake spiderweb stuff, styrofoam tombstones, and the spooky background music. apparently you should send your friends and relatives halloween cards as well.

i know that’s kind of silly. every holiday is commercialized. and yes, it bugs me, every holiday. it’s not really a reason to stop celebrating them.

side note. have you noticed the route that women’s costumes have taken lately? it’s impossible to find a non-slutty women’s costume! this drives me nuts. even the costumes that are practically identical to the ones for little girls are SO not identical. you could be the slutty pirate, the slutty firefighter, the slutty princess, the slutty dorothy, the slutty little red riding hood, the slutty police officer. WHAT IS THAT ABOUT????

this all has kind of come to a head recently when, after accumulating several pieces for shane’s costume, he’s announced that he doesn’t want to go trick or treating. HUH??? apparently he thinks he’s too old. not sure where he got that idea, but i’m kind of seeing it as an opportunity to make a change, if we’re going to. that coupled with the fact that layla has a bad cold might make halloween this year a non-issue, although she has been looking forward to it.

obviously, this is a totally personal issue, and a decision that every family has to make for themselves – if they even see that there is a decision to be made. i don’t have any problem, whatsoever, with other people celebrating halloween, well, if they’re doing all the invoking of evil spirits and all that, i DO have a problem, but not ‘normal, safe, modern-american halloween. i’m just contemplating whether or not it should be something our family does. hmmm… must do more research, methinks.

just trying to do the right thing here.

putting my foot in my mouth…

otherwise known as, i have a lot of new posts up.

i say i’m putting my foot in my mouth because i just finished giving mary a hard time about her 14 new posts. i’m not THAT bad, but i do have like 5. i wanted to get the pictures from micah’s birthday off the camera and posted, so i did that, but found a lot of other pictures on the camera that i had meant to post. so there you go.

just keep scrolling down!

and sorry mary! ;)

party time

sunday afternoon was micah’s mini-party. i really didn’t want to have a big to-do, so we just invited a few friends to come hang and eat cake.

and that’s what we did!

but first we had to pry him away from his trains. when i asked him, “micah, do you want cake?” he replied, “no, i want thomas.” here trudy is attempting to convince him to come see his cake… eventually, we decided to bring the cake in there. we did manage to drag him away long enough to chow down! present time! Oballs are the best! the super soft, plush thomas ‘pillow’. we all want one. SO soft! books. and more train stuff. VERY exciting!

   it was a ‘thomas’ kinda birthday for this 2 year old!

birthday boy!

so micah turned 2 this weekend.

::sniff sniff::

posing for the traditional ‘last day to be 1’ photo:

his birthday was on saturday, but with shane having a 4:30 soccer game (which they won, btw, and he scored) we decided to have his party on sunday.

but the 17th didn’t pass without celebration. after the game on saturday night, we went to dinner at red robin and my parents joined us there. they did their whole sing and clap and yell LOUDLY thing for him and he was totally thrilled! i was a little afraid he might freak out because of it, but he loved it… especially that his sundae came with 2 balloons tied to it!

when we got home, we made the mistake of letting him open his presents from gramma and papa before he went to bed.             the caboose plays the ‘thomas’ theme music when you push a button on top. so, of course, he would push the button repeatedly and then go dance! SO cute.

   he was SO excited about his new trains, that he wasn’t overly interested in his spiffy engineer gear, complete w/ train whistle… that’s not to say that everyone else didn’t think they were supercool! bedtime was tough that night. we were super-mean parents that made him go to bed and wouldn’t let him take his musical caboose to bed with him. so he went to sleep wailing, “I WANT THOMAS!” in the most pathetic way! =(

it’s tough to be 2!

fall family hike

so this was about a month ago, but i’m just now getting these pictures off my camera, so here we go. this was a little hike we took on a sunday afternoon at the paradise valley conservation area. it was a nice easy, kid-friendly assortment of trails. you can use some of them for biking and horseback riding as well as hiking.

there was a cow pasture by the parking lot at the trailhead. so we had to check out the cows. well, some of us. for some reason, layla decided she was scared of cows. what’s that about?

yup. the cow licked my hand. i always set a good example for my kids. yeah, those animals in there? we don’t know much about them, but you should totally stick your fingers through the fence and see what happens!

the ‘nurse log’ photo is actually a reenactment of a previous photo from when dave and i were dating and a trip we took to canada.

yes, that’s horse poo. the trail marker signs had pictures of horses on them, indicating that horses could use those trails. layla thought it meant that if you went that way, you could see horses. sadly, we saw no horses… but we did see evidence that they had been there.

the cows were gone when we got back to the parking lot, but we did find some blackberry bushes. unfortunately, layla managed to get stickers in both hands and wailed the whole way home. thankfully it’s a short drive.

art funk.

i’m ashamed to admit it. i’m in a major art funk. i’m having major trouble coming up with art for the kids to do.

no. strike that.

i’m having major trouble coming up with the motivation for the kids to do art.

it’s not that there are no ideas.

ugh.

i don’t know why i hate doing art at home so much with my own kids. when i was teaching, this was my favorite part of the day. my favorite thing to plan. the ONE thing i would never let my assistant help with because i wanted to be the one to watch all the fun.

but at home? not so much.

maybe it’s fact that i’m pulling out a bunch of stuff for only 3 kids (assuming micah is able and/or shane is willing) to use. maybe it’s the fact that i don’t have an assistant to clean up for me when we’re done. (i can’t possibly describe how much i HATE washing out paint cups and brushes. YUCK!) maybe it’s the fact that i don’t have a preschool art cupboard to raid full of all sorts of fun supplies. maybe it’s the fact that any time i DO plan something, layla is never willing to do what i have in mind. it seems like any time i attempt to plan some sort of art activity (not a ‘craft’, mind you. not one of those ‘we’re going to make a _________’ activities – i mean some sort of free-ish, open-ended art activity) she doesn’t want to do it. my free-spirited child has her own ideas, which are invariably a lot more messy and/or involved than i want them to be in my own house.

ugh.

oh well, i have no REAL excuses. especially since my mom just bought layla a box of 10 bottles of paint. that should hold us for a week or two. geez.

this is not to say that ‘NO’ art has been going on here… with layla, it’s kind of a way of life.

yes, that’s a paper dress. she’s been making dresses for paper dolls for awhile now. this time she wanted to make one to fit herself. she stuck it on with masking tape. ;-)

oh, that girl!

cat on a wet, shingled roof

so we have this cat, not our cat, that lives on our roof apparently. i guess it likes it up there. we discovered it up there a few weeks ago when the neighbors heard pathetic meowing one afternoon. after looking around all over, under cars and bushes, we finally spotted it up on the roof. assuming it was stuck, we tried to coax it down. dave finally climbed up on fence, and grabbed it when it came over for some lovin’. our neighbor teri, says it is a stray that the people who live behind her have ‘adopted’ (they feed it). so it was down, and it went on it’s way.

a couple mornings ago, shane went out to scoop the poop, and discovered the cat was back on our roof. so, being a 10 year old boy who likes cats and climbing on things, he shimmied himself up on the fence and attempted to coax the cat down. it’s a very friendly cat and would totally come over to him and rub around him and let him pet it and and was purring like crazy. but he couldn’t manage to grab it. i assured him that it would be fine. it’s a cat, after all, and if it got itself up there AGAIN, it could figure out a way to get down. we had a very distracted day of school, as shane was convinced that the cat was going to starve to death on our roof. when dave got home, we sent him out to ‘rescue’ the cat again, but it was on the other end of the house, and wouldn’t come to him. so we left it.

yesterday morning, shane went out to scoop the poop again (at least that’s what he was supposed to be doing). when i went out to see what was taking him so long, i discovered him standing on the fence, once again, with the cat in his arms. (have i mentioned that this is a 6 foot fence?) of course, now that it was IN his arms, he could not use his arms to help himself down. i told him to just drop it, and when he tried, the cat climbed back up him and onto the roof. it was NOT going to be dropped. so he started again, coaxing the cat to come to him.

it did, he caught it, and attempted again, to drop it. this time, he wound up having to jump off the fence to avoid falling. imagine a boy leaping off a 6 foot fence with a large, fluffy brown cat hanging from his sleeve. that was entertaining. fortunately everyone reached the ground safely. the cat, finding itself trapped in our backyard and quite perturbed, made a couple of attempts at scaling the fence and was unsuccessful. shane picked it up again to give it some more love (i think he’s hoping it will become OUR cat – not happening) and then put it down at my repeated screaming instructions that it was time to leave the darn cat alone and get inside to start school.

then layla let the dog out.

it took sophie all of like 2 seconds to realize that the thing she was looking at was, indeed, a cat before instinct kicked in and she remembered that she used to take great pleasure in protecting her humans from these vile creatures – in her younger years.

needless to say, the cat is back on the roof.