Bon voyage

One thing I've really noticed with this pregnancy is how refreshing a good night's sleep is for the body.  It is transformative.  By the time I go to bed each night, I am dragging.  This sounds so dramatic, but it honestly feels like my body is in shambles . . . I honestly don't have the capacity for much more.  But when I wake up the next morning I feel refreshed and rested, like myself again.

With that in mind, the boys and I are flying out of Minneapolis this evening.  Our flight leaves at 9:50 PM and we arrive in Seattle at 11:00-ish PM (1:00-ish AM CST).  This will be after a 3.5 hour drive to the Twin Cities this morning.  I really wonder how it will be for me by the time I drag myself into bed (after potentially wrestling the boys into bed) in the wee hours of the morning.  Oy.

We are headed to my parents' house for the next three weeks.  I am really looking forward to enjoying the beautiful spring: budding trees, blooming flowers, the lush, green grass.  Sweater weather.  And being caressed by the fresh, cool, damp air.  Dreamy.  Waking up to zero degrees F this morning, that seems like a distant reality, but a reality which will be mine tomorrow morning.

Much love to all.

The fellas' main obsessions these days

Diego and his bug terrarium.

This collection includes: flies, spiders, asian beetles & box elder bugs

He puts in wet cottonballs for them to drink from,

but doesn't refrain from imposing the predator/prey dynamic.

He spends a lot of his day hovering over it,

adding to the collection and wondering how soon the spiders will eat.

I thrifted this 5-gallon tank and terrarium cover last fall --

I knew it would get heavy-duty use, but already??

We still have a thick snow cover!

Truen and one of his many "houses".

Trubies is MEGA into building fort-building this winter.

He hung a towel from an open oven door on this one,

clipping and pinning an extra blanket and scarf to create a wall.

The drawer and open cupboard form the back wall --

and the little thing you see hanging from it?

That's his "animal skin".

Truen and Diego are wearing their "twin" shirts --

It rarely works out that they wear them at the same time,

but somehow it worked out in these pictures, taken on different days.

Jamie: participating in or pilfering whatever his brudders are doing.

In this case, he is happily posing in front one of Truen's paintings.

He was also heavily involved in Truen's little "house" in the picture above --

I had to make him a separate fort to ensure he didn't wreck it.

He also hauls the footstool over to Diego's bug terrarium,

squealing, watching, attempting to break in, etc.

Other hobbies include

Lego destruction, crayon-eating, and scissor stealing.

Doesn't he look just adorable in his undies?

What a little fella ♥

Dust goblin? Or Dust fairy?

This morning Jamie and I were in the bedroom.  I had just gotten him dressed and the sun was streaming in through the window, illuminating all those tiny little dust particles that we never see otherwise.

He noticed them, said, "Heeeeeeey....!" with that crooked little grin, and immediately began his attack.  Yah! Yah! and Yah! as he chopped at floating dust with his stealth ninja-hands.  Diego and Truen both did the same thing at similar ages, though I think Diego's attack was more of a cupped-hand "gathering" assault.  But then, Jamie has been exposed to way more battling via his brudders by this age.  Shoot, he's an eager participant.

But it got me thinking.  I wonder if I ever battled floating dust?  Would have even been a thought in my mind?  I remember imagining dreamily that the softly drifting particles were little fairies or sprites or perhaps even living sparkles, but that would have been when I was older. 

Did I battle dust at age two?  I wonder.

Library expansion

This is a long overdue update.  The last time I posted on our library expansion project was December 2011, when our little town was still in the final thrust of moving toward the goal of acceptance and commitment by the townspeople and city council.

So much has happened since.

The synopsis for 2012 is as follows: the project was approved by the city council, our Friends' group donated $4,000 to the library board towards the purchase of the empty lot next to the library (the total price was something like $6,500 . . . can you believe it??), the library board approved the architect's new layout, a contractor was hired, remodeling/expansion begun in the fall, and the library was closed for 3.5 months during renovation.

Our newly expanded library re-opened in mid-January.  It is amazing.  It finally looks like a real library.  There are comfortable spaces for browsing and quiet reading.  Instead of feelings of claustrophobia, there is an aura of quiet pleasantness.

The following three pictures show the library BEFORE.  This, and I kid you not, was the library in its entirety.

Squished.  Unpleasant.  No space for activities.  No solitude.

Here's what it looks like now, AFTER expansion --

Not only is it a more pleasant space for quiet reading and browsing, but there is an amazing amount of potential for expansion and growth.  Public meeting space.  Room for activities and events.  Room for more books and bookshelves as the collection grows.  No more sidling sideways through the stacks to get by someone.  Airy. Light. Attractive.  It pleases me endlessly.

Isn't it just awesome??

The Woodpecker

Now that we have Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening under our belts, we are working this little charmer --

The Woodpecker

The woodpecker pecked out a little round hole
And made him a house in the telephone pole.
One day when I watched he poked out his head,
And he had on a hood and a collar of red.

When the streams of rain pour out of the sky,
And the sparkles of lightning go flashing by,
And the big, big wheels of thunder roll,
He can snuggle back in the telephone pole.

~ Elizabeth Madox Roberts
   Favorite Poems Old and New
   1957

Ruthless

I was always the kind of girl that saved everything.

Pretty much anything was fair game in the realm of keepsakes and nostalgia: rocks, pressed leaves, notes, necklaces, socks, holey underwear, pots, plants, dried oranges, pressed orange peels, hats, hair ribbons, clips, drinking cups, markers, magazines, beauty products, shoes.  Heck, you name it.  I've probably saved it.

This is one of my fine qualities (ahem) that drives my tidy husband insane.  And I'm sure it drove my mom insane before him.  I was like a giant, heavy nostalgia magnet unable to let anything go.

But no more.  As I get older, I am slowly making my move to the other side.

I am starting to get ruthless.

Clutter irritates me.  Useless junk piled up in storage spaces drives me batty.  Broken toys feel my wrath.  I am more than ready to chuck whatever unfortunate excess that comes across my path.  I can't take it anymore.  Even items I once clung to with tender remembrances aren't very safe anymore.  I just don't have the capacity of time or energy to preserve it.  Or perhaps it just isn't as important to me anymore.

I announced this to Blaine the other night and got an effective huzzah! amen! it's about time! in response.  I'm finally catching up with him in this dept.  It used to be a fight, but now I'm joining his team.

We have several avenues to remove built-up junk at our house.

• Semi-valuable, useful, and rare items are sold on eBay or consigned
• Ordinary but useful items are given to thrift stores; ditto on excess toys 
• Excess paper products, recycled; likewise on all the other recyclables
• Trash = garbage

Consigning has actually been very useful.  You pay a fee to the consignor to sell the item, but there is absolutely no work involved and that makes it sooooo worth it.  You can also sell larger items or stuff of regional interest that wouldn't necessarily sell (or sell for much) on eBay.  We've succeeded in ridding ourselves from horded household items, dumpster-diving quests, and portions of the lifetime accumulations we've gotten from several sets of older folks moving to a smaller space.

Just this weekend, after organizing a work space to attack my gargantuan mending pile (which was eventually halted by a sewing machine malfunction), I was grim in my resolve to rid ourselves of some of my last holdings.  That $1,000 wool rug that we bought before having children?  The one we've never used because our cat Lester peed on it the first time we ever unrolled it?

Yeah.  That one.  That baby is getting the boot.  I am done.

Our little homeschool's morning board

Woof!  It looks so ugly in the sparse lighting.

Here's our morning board, as promised.  It isn't the most be-a-utiful picture, but it'll have to do.

I modeled it after Mama Jenn's fine piece of work.  I used all her printables and copied the basic gist of things.  I didn't laminate anything; I don't have a laminator and feel gun-shy of coating everything in plastic.  I know they would probably last longer, but I resist.  I'd rather just use paper and re-print as they eventually get destroyed or wear out.

We used to have an art wire in this area (right outside the kitchen, heading into the living room at the bottom of the stairs), but when a friend gave me a large piece of composite cork-board after remodeling (possibly used as an insulating "sounding board" by the previous owner, I don't know), I knew this exact spot is where I would put our new Calender / Morning Board combo.  It is perfect: right in view of the kitchen table, but not dominating a main living area.

I covered it in extra fabric (thanks Mom . . . recognize it?) with our handy-dandy staple gun (thanks again, Andrenda), got a calendar themed with monthly/seasonal shifts from a school supply company, started gathering up supplies, and proceeded from there.  The empty sections are TBD . . . I figured I might want to add components later on and configured the space to accommodate that.  Overall, I am very pleased with how it turned out.  

Having a morning board is a very nice starting point for the day.  We do it every morning before breakfast: the boys keep track of the weather, days in school, the date, change the shapes card (that's Jamie's job and thank goodness he has one or it would be complete turmoil), and recite the poem we are focusing on for memory work.  I am also very pleased with the daily reference and visual for numbers higher-than-ten in sequence.  I feel like it provides them with a more tangible source to process through this concept.  Working towards an understanding of the calendar year is happening too . . . just this afternoon, out of the blue on the way up to Quiet Time, Diego asked how many months were in a year.

Logistically, I tried to keep everything as high as possible knowing that Señor Destructo AKA little Jamie would be all over it.  He has gone through phases where he loves ripping the weather and "days in school" cards down, and one time completely mangled the poem and the sheath it resides in, but the overall product has not been destroyed.  Knock on wood!

And now . . . let's have a nicer-looking picture in here in kindness to our retinas.

Blaine did a cleansing fast this past weekend, where he ate nothing but fruit and vegetables for two days to gear up, three days of nothing but fresh juice, water, and tea, and then geared back down with another two days of fruit and vegetables.  Complete with morning enemas of lemon juice, then coffee, during the three-day fast.  Such a lovely thought, I know, but they really help with the detox.  He juiced massive quantities of celery, cabbage, carrots, apples, garlic, oranges, and grapefruit (Diego loved helping him).

The boys and I left the house on the first day of the fast, which ended up being the hardest day for Blaine, and ended up at a Mexican restaurant for our evening meal.  It turned out to be one of the wildest and most unpleasant meals I've ever had at a restaurant with the boy-ohs, mostly from their sheer exuberance and the relentless wiggling.  They were literally falling out of the booth.  Most unpleasant.  They weren't necessarily being naughty, just wildly ecstatic and I was completely unable to tame them. 

The fast went very well for Blaine.  The hunger was intense, of course; but he held out.  He was terribly stinky that first day and had a killer headache, but the second and third days felt much more normal (aside from the hunger).  He even went out and skied hard the second morning, feeling the urge to sweat (then skied at a snail's pace with Truen).  It was good.  I hope he makes it a yearly event.  And someday . . . when I'm done having babies, I'll do it too.

Third tooth

 The result of a game of "pillow monster" the day before yesterday --

Truen accidentally bashed into Diego's mouth

right as he was pretending to bite him.

He pushed and twiddled it with his tongue all yesterday morning

(like you see in the above photo) until it just plopped out.

I wasn't as sad this time 'round, 

though it does change the look of his face.

Strangely enough --

Just this week I looked at his face with nostalgia,

thinking how different he'd look with his baby teeth gone.

It's a . . .

'nother baby boy.  What else could it be?

Here's his little foot --

And his little arm --

They tried to get a 3-D image of his face but he was wiggling around too much.

Of course . . . I was hoping for the outside chance that it might just possibly be a girl, but after couple of minutes of crestfallen disappointment, I was back to my usual happy self.  A boy is what we were pretty much expecting anyway.  I know boys and I love my boys.  Blaine is pleased (though was initially a little disappointed over the fact they it wasn't twins, the rascal).  He would have flipped over a girl, but as he says, "I love my boys".  The sweet little fellas.

And I have all their gear, conveniently sorted by age; there is definitely a part of me with a strange satisfaction to be able to use their clothes all over again.   This little guy will be suited up with all the socks, shoes, boots, pants, shirts, undies, coats, hats, and mittens that he'll ever need.  I've saved it all.  Though I do suppose a number of things will be totally worn out by the time it gets to him.  The knees in most of the 4T pants are already threadbare.  I really need to learn how to patch (I think I can, I think I can, I think I can).  I wonder if little girls wear out the knees of pants like little boys do?

Shoot, maybe he'll even have a name by the time he's born.

The twin saga

We had a bit of a wild ride last month, when the possibility of TWINS cropped up.  I know, I know.  I spent many a sleepless night, my mind running and not able to stop contemplating the possibility of caring for two babies at once.  I mean, I know people do it, but it just sounds so. hard.

Here's the story --

Back in December, I measured 18 inches at my 16 week prenatal appointment.  Five weeks later, at my January appointment, I measured 29.5 inches.  For anyone who doesn't know, at 21 weeks it is normal to measure 21 inches.  Not 29 inches.

I didn't realize what she was contemplating until she asked, "Are you planning to have an ultrasound with this pregnancy?" as she measured my belly for the third time.  I answered cheerfully at first, "Well . . . only if you want me to," as the slow terror of what she was considering dawned on me.  Twins?!

In addition to what appeared to be a rather large growth spurt, my midwife was reminded of her twin-mamas with some of the things I was telling her: heavy pressure on my pelvic floor, substantial ligament pain, movement that seemed much stronger than it should be, etc.  Though I wasn't ever quite sure it the movement was actually stronger, or if I was just more aware of it due to experience.

She found one heartbeat and two placental tones, which didn't tell us anything because it could have easily been the placenta attached at the back and reverberating off the sides of my uterus.  There was no telling for sure.  She also felt a lot of "baby parts" but couldn't necessarily place the exact position of the head or back or feet, though it did appear the baby was laying in a breech position.  She recommended either 1) waiting until next month's prenatal to see if I was still measuring large, or 2) if I really couldn't stand it, go in for an ultrasound for the final word.

Initially, I figured I would just wait.  I have measured large two different times before, always evening out by the next appointment in both cases.  It seemed silly to go in for an ultrasound just for measuring large.  Right?  Right??  But then I started checking in with one of my yahoo groups, a group that I know has a number of twin-mamas on its list.  Two of the answers, "I didn't find out until my ultrasound at 20 weeks" and "I didn't start measuring large until 20 weeks or so" was enough to spur me into action.

I called my back-up doctor and scheduled an appointment.  A doctor's order is required to get an ultrasound and I needed to connect with him at least once before the birth anyway, so it was going to work out for my benefit either way.

At the appointment, I was still measuring large, though not in correspondence with the two weeks which had passed.  He also checked for fetal heart tones and thought he found two - TWO.  One on the lower-left at 150 beats per minute and then one immediately afterwards on the upper-right at 160 beats per minute.

I think I screeched, "Are you telling me that you found two heartbeats?!", but then he was unable to relocate the "first" heartbeat.  This could have meant that either the baby moved, or the first baby moved behind the second baby.  Either way, there was no telling.  An ultrasound was the way we were going to find out.

We all went in together two days later, thinking that if this was a doozy-of-an-ultrasound with the huge news of two babies, not just one, it might be fun for the boys to witness it.  I didn't sleep very well the night before, as you can imagine.  How would I get anything done?  How I could I ever travel by plane again?  How would we fit everyone into our mini-van?  How could there ever be enough of me to go around?  And so on.

We all filed into the room and I lay down on the table.  The ultrasound tech slopped the glop on my belly, put the instrument down, and said, "There's your baby".  Talk about anti-climatic.

"My baby?  There's only one in there....?" I asked.  She evidently didn't get the memo that this was the sole reason why we were there.  "Yep," she said.  After checking and re-checking and confirming that yes, she would absolutely be able to tell the moment it came up on the screen, I was satisfied.  One baby.  One baby!  There was only one baby.  The relief flooded in.

The reason I measured large is because the baby is in a longitudinal breech position, with the head in the upper-right part of my belly, the feet in the lower-left.  It also measured about a week ahead in size, so it could have been a "growth spurt" in conjunction with the breech position.

 Isn't it just the cutest little thing?

And . . . we know what we are having.  Does anyone want to venture a guess?

(If you know already, shhhhhhhhhhhhh.)

Feeling inspired in the kitchen

Recently Diego and Truen, but particularly Diego, have been very interested in making food.

It started from Diego's desire to make what I call "slop", where he mixes various ingredients together into a disgusting glop that no one wants to eat, not even him.  While I do believe in letting them explore their interests and inspirations, I have a very hard time allowing him to waste our hard-earned food supply by turning it into inedible garbage, so I usually try to steer his interest into something more productive: our kid cookbooks.

Looking through the cookbooks last week kindled a little fire and so we pulled out their "special notebooks" (I'm trying to train them early to keep all their information, lists, stickers, and special pieces of paper in one place) and wrote a list of what they each wanted to make.

Diego's List:

• Chocolate Mousse
• Mini Pizzas
• Pigs in a Blanket
• Quiche
• Ice Cream Gateau

Truen's List:

• Ox-eye Eggs
• Croque Monsieur
• Pigs in a Blanket
• Baked Bananas

Then we made lists of all the ingredients that we would need to buy.  In this case: ham, sausages, cream, bacon, olives, mozzarella cheese, and ice cream.  We had everything else.

Thus far we've made the mini pizzas, ox-eye eggs, croque monsieur (grilled cheese sandwiches w/ ham), and baked bananas.  The boys are so proud of the work they've done and really enjoy re-living how delicious their special meal was.  I think we've made ox-eye eggs three times now (Truen wanted them for lunch today) and when we made the mini-pizzas, Diego cut all the ingredients up totally on his own: scallions, olives, mushrooms (and even got a little sting in his eyes from the green onions).

I've been very pleased with the whole thing.  Watching their excitement during the process and the subsequent pride over the results is so much fun.  This week I think we'll probably make the 'pigs in a blanket' and chocolate mousse.

And honestly . . . baked bananas??  Who knew they'd be so delicious?!  Scrumptious.

Singing by the fire

In December 2005 my brother made up a song inspired the bumbling Master of Disguise, Chief Inspector Clouseau.  He was home on Christmas break with his guitar and I was home visiting with Baby Diego.  My sister was still in high school and on winter break.  We had nothing pressing to do, nothing at all. 

We sat around a lot in those days and this visit was no exception.  We lounged in the living room in front of the fire and sang the song together, very sweetly.  Over and over and over again.  It is soft and folky, nothing like you would imagine the sound of a fake peg-legged pirate with an inflatable parrot on his shoulder and a rubber nose singing right before he fell off a foggy pier into the murky waters below.

We bumped into the video I took of it the other night and it triggered much nostalgia.  I wish I could post it, but it resides on a mini-DVD vs. our hard-drive.  It is sweet, oh so sweet.  Sing it mournfully in your head as your read it.

Does it have a title, Erik?

Sixteen chests on a dead man's rum,
Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of the kip-per,
Drink to the devil and ohhhh-ohhhh-ohhhhh
ohhhhhh-ohhhhhh-ohhhhhh
Sploosh.

Inspired by this scene in Revenge of the Pink Panther, starting at 2:22 --

Best idea ever

I now require that the older boys stay in bed until 8:00 AM each morning.

If they get up before then, they are allowed to come out to grab a kitty to snuggle with, say hello and get a hug, or go potty.  After any of that, back to bed.

I usually try to wake up with Blaine around 6:45 - 7:00 AM.  We talk while I help him get ready; a pleasant time free of disruptions, as you might well imagine.  He leaves at 7:30 AM and then I take a shower or stretch and read or stare until the boys wake up.

Believe you me, it is a mighty unpleasant sight to watch a groggy-eyed little guy stumble out of the room way too early, especially considering how late their bed-time is, and particularly when that signals The End.  The end of my morning down-time and the beginning onslaught of the day's demands.  But these little guys are hell-bent on spending every waking hour in our presence, even if they have to pull themselves out of bed at an ungodly hour in a heap of total exhaustion to do it.  Bless their precious little hearts.
 
I have had enough.  I need that quiet-time in the morning and they need more sleep.  I've come to understand (though don't always remember) that the more structured the expectations, the greater the success in navigating through all the pit-falls of daily life with children.  Thus: the eight o'clock rule.  They grumbled a bit about it at first, but this week's "test drive" has gone very well.  Both boys have both fallen back asleep upon the return to bed and wake up refreshed at a much more reasonable time.  As for little Jamie . . . he wakes up "whenever" and I snuggle with him in the solitude, though it is usually much later time than the boys typically attempt to wake up (unless they are out-cold).

I got the idea from Steady Mom.  Their house rule is that their children need to stay in their rooms until 8:00 AM, but since my guys don't have their own room and go to bed comparatively late, they will stay in their bed.

So far, so wonderful.

Update

All three boys are asleep, a rarity these days.  This bronchial virus has laid them all pretty low.  It is amazing how much they are still coughing.  This is the first day Diego has been able to talk above a whisper since last Thursday.  Friday?  I can't remember.

I am so unused to posting more than once every week or that I don't even know where to start.  It feels like a big job, piecing a post together.  My mind is so full with "just life" -- daily activities, schooling, survival, making sure we are fed and clean, etc. -- that I don't have much time to think about much else.

I've been wondering about things a lot recently, feeling like I had "so much more time" in the past to commit to reading or outside interests.  But now?  I just can't.  There are too many demands on me.  It is hard.

And we are adding another baby to this mix.  Ha!  As if I feel sparse on personal time now . . . and then I'll be starting this whole process over again this spring?  Wow.

I am currently 22 weeks.  I feel the baby moving every day, with all kinds of kicks and rolls and head-butts.  It is an active little thing.  It seems like I didn't feel as strong or specific movements at this point in past pregnancies, but I don't know that for sure.  I am more experienced, so I know what I'm feeling . . . but it just seems different.  I need to compare notes with friends.

* * *

Our little homeschool is coming along nicely.  I am slowly implementing more of a routine, which helps me to feel like we are staying on track.  I finally made a Morning Board, using MamaJenn's work of art as my inspiration.  I am pleased with the end-result (and I'll have to post a picture at some point, though Jamie has already mangled some of its components, the little rascal).

We keep track of the calendar, our days in school, the weather, shapes, and recite our monthly poem each morning before breakfast.  I am working towards building an understanding for the days, weeks, months.  I was getting tired of their lack of knowledge in this dept. as well as their inability to tell time, so I am organizing it into our day.  There is no point in spinning my wheels any longer, or just assuming they'll "catch on".  It is time to teach it.  Measuring time by Mr. Bean episode lengths has been helpful, but I've had enough.

I am generally following the Ambleside Online (AO) schedule for Year 1.  I chose not to include some of the books; but for the most part, I am following their weekly schedule.  Some of the selections are too hard to source through the library, I didn't like them, and/or I didn't want to buy them; nor do we have an ipad or Kindle to read them as e-books.

I am also more interested in following a classical approach to studying history, with the four-year rotation of studying Ancient History, Middle Ages, Renaissance & Reformation, and Modern Times.  AO Year 1 starts with the history of the UK, which is interesting, but not exactly what I had in mind.  That being said, we are listening to An Island Story by H.E. Marshall via LibriVox and haven't started in on any other history other than biographies, though I am starting to think about incorporating it this spring.

Ideally, I would like to get all our schoolwork done in the mornings while we are all fresh, but reading aloud has been relegated to Jamie's afternoon nap.  Reading aloud with him in the room (unless I am specifically reading to him) is all but impossible.  He is very demanding and will insist on turning the pages or try to grab at the book to close and put it away.  Or he hollers and insists that I pay attention to whatever he is doing.

We are also working on beginning reading with the chalkboard: identifying letters, letter sounds, sounding words out.  I am taking it slow and steady.

* * *

This post was interrupted well over an hour ago and I'd better post it now or it will reside permanently in my Drafts folder.

Adieu.

Señor Destructo

We usually have two Lego tables set up during the winter months.  One in front of the kitchen door (we never use that door in the winter) and one in the living room in front of the southern-facing bay window.  Squeeze always gets obsessed with Legos over the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays, putting together all the sets that have slowly disintegrated over the year.

Jamie was too little for much destruction last year.  He was always interested, but he couldn't reach much.  I even have a picture of his fat, little baby toes gripping a Hubbard squash in an attempt to get just a leeeetle bit higher.

This year is different.  Oy.  Though the tables have been set up for the last two months, he hasn't shown much interest in total and complete destruction until recently.  Sure, he tinkered with the Legos within reach, and tore a few things apart, but most of it was easily put together.  Those sweet days gone by.

This has most definitely not been the case this past week.  He has morphed into a rabid Tasmanian devil, leaving a path of destruction and scattered Lego pieces in his wake.  Ripped apart, thrown asunder, probably even stomped on, who knows.

This morning the older boys were in the bathroom with the door closed, to keep in heat and steam with Diego in the tub, listening to a Magic Treehouse audiobook.  All three have been sick with some kind of bronchial virus; Jamie is pretty much over it, but Diego and Truen are still in the thrust of sore throats and the accompanying coughing fits.

Jamie was mercifully entertaining himself at the play table, or so I thought, while I had a bit of down-time over a slow breakfast after 6 days of being a sick-slave.  Oh dear.  I should have seen it coming.

Truen came out the the bathroom at some point to check in with me on something.  By this point I was in the living room writing an email to my in-laws.  He surveyed the wreck of the Lego table (which I hadn't noticed yet) and said, "Look at this!  Who made this mess?  Who made this mess?!" while Jamie rolled around on the floor under a blanket.

I finally tore myself away and replied with the obvious, "Uhm, welllll . . . it must have been Jamie".  Who else??

Truen went back into the bathroom to tell Diego the news.  When he had left, Jamie popped up from under the blanket like a little jack-in-the-box and affirmed jubilantly, "I did it, yeth!"

So the little sucker is proud of it too.

I see a near-end of the Lego table in sight.  Slowly, slowly all the destroyed pieces are being stored away in boxes for next winter's Lego-making blitz.  The stuff that the boys are able to put together might be stored on a high place, played with for a length of time, then put back UP.

That little rascal.

A delicious chicken & rice soup

I've learned my lesson before: always write down a recently developed recipe, even if I think I'm going to remember it.  With that in mind, I made the most amazing chicken & rice soup today.  I wrote it down for my recipe box, but it was so wonderfully delicious I wanted to share it with all of you.

Chicken & Rice Soup

• 1-2 onions
• 3-4 garlic cloves
• 4-6 mushrooms
• 12 cups chicken stock
• Mixed dried vegetables (zucchini, green beans, corn, celery, etc.)
• 4-5 carrots, chopped
• 1/2 cabbage OR frozen chopped greens
• 1-2 potatoes, chopped
• 1 cup cooked chickpeas
• Thyme
• 2 bay leaves
• 2-ish cups cooked rice
• 2-3 cups cooked chicken, chopped
• 3 cubes frozen chopped parsley
• 3 tsp salt
• pepper to taste

:: Begin to fry the onions and mushrooms in lard (or butter) until melty and sweet, adding in the garlic.  Add the chicken stock, thyme, bay leaves, chickpeas, and all the vegetables except the frozen greens.  Bring to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer, partially covered, until cooked through.

:: At the end of cooking, add the frozen greens, parsley, chicken, rice, salt and pepper.

It was out of this world.  Amazingly satisfying with buttered toast on the side.

Extended weekend wedding trip

 We started off the weekend visiting Squeeze's grandparents

Jamie really loved playing with his great-grandma --

He would run from her to Squeeze's grandpa and throw himself in their laps.

I was a little worried about him possibly hurting them but they seemed to love it.

We were watching a video of our nephews & niece playing the piano --

They hadn't been able to figure out the DVD player up to that point.

 We stayed in a hotel, which the boys LOVED --

Truen declared, "I want to live here forever!" on the first night.

And here they are: mesmerized by the kids' channel on the TV.

Their #1 favorite activity was swimming in the hotel pool.

I took pictures, but every single one was blurry --

Picture huge smiles and constant motion.

 LSJFF's wedding --

'Twas lovely and intimate.  I was so happy I cried.

My favorite part was seeing Aaron's face radiate such happiness and joy --

As he looked around he appeared to be totally floored by the scene,

surrounded by so many people who love them.  It was great.

We brought the boys, so unfortunately didn't get much of a chance to enjoy things.

Such a bummer, but we didn't predict the level of insanity --

At the reception, Jamie was literally RUNNING the entire time.

Tripping old men, weaving through crowds, climbing the railing, that kind of thing.

On our last day we took a trip to Como Park. 

Here we are, crowded around one of our favorite exhibits --

The leaf-cutter ants.  Awesome.

We also tried to visit our former neighbor Wilburn that day,

but his senior housing was in the throes of an influenza outbreak --

We were strongly advised at the reception desk not to enter.

SUCH a bummer.

 All the boys fell asleep on the way home after such a busy weekend --

Diego somehow produced this sleeping position,

the best fell-asleep-in-the-van picture ever.

LOLOLOL

 We came back on Monday night, but took a 4-day weekend --
Giving us time to recuperate on Tuesday. 

It was so nice for Blaine to not have to go back to work ASAP.

We bought cross-country skis for the boys while we were in "the Cities".

 We have been scheming on this for a number of years and finally did it this weekend.

We skied yesterday afternoon and they LOVED it.  Yessssss.

We were so pleased.

 We skied up the driveway and back (probably a half-mile total).

I pulled Jamie in the sled while Blaine skied at a snail's pace with the boys.

They both did very well and seemed to really enjoy it.

In addition to the actual skiing,

I think they really liked having gear "just their size".

Truen didn't fall as often as Diego --

But he is generally a lot more careful and deliberate.

Aren't those tiny little poles just the cutest?

We went out again today and Diego was actually going pretty fast.

I think I would have been like that too --

'Forget all this learning-stuff . . . let's get adventurous ASAP!!'

All in all, a very good weekend.

I should also say . . . Jamie is fully potty-trained!  He accidentally peed his pants twice this past weekend but said, "Pee!" as he was doing it both times.  Otherwise everything else went into the potty chair completely on his own prompting, even in the van on the way there and back.  Wow.  Awesome.

Jamie is two years old

 All wrapped up at almost 3 weeks --

How I love that button nose and downy little head.

 

"Safety first"

Playing with playdough last week

:: Jamie's Birth Story :: 

Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening

This afternoon the boys and I started working on memorizing the first stanza from Robert Frost's poem Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening.  At the evening meal, I asked them to recite what they remembered for Squeeze.

Diego started before I had the chance, so I kept quiet and let him go forward on his own:

Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.

He finished with wide eyes, amazed at himself.  He had recited it perfectly.  It was so fun to see.

Earlier in the afternoon while we were working on it, Truen recited the first two lines like this: "I think I know whose woods these are, but his house is in the village".  It was the cutest thing.

I think this might be my first official post on our little homeschool.  We are using this book illustrated by Susan Jeffers as our reference: a lovely book of a lovely poem.

Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening

Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

~ Robert Frost
   The Poetry of Robert Frost
   1923

2012 Booklist: Completed

• One Whaling Family: A Stirring Adventure - the Authentic Account of a Great Whaling Captain Who Took His Family to Sea - Edited by Harold Williams
• Mortality - Christopher Hitchens
• Why? - Tomie DePaola (Read Aloud)
• Salted: A Manifesto on the World's Most Essential Mineral, with Recipes - Mark Bitterman
• Food in Jars: Preserving in Small Batches Year-Round - Marisa MeClellan
• The Preservation Kitchen: The Craft of Making and Cooking with Pickles, Preserves, and Aigre-doux - Paul Virant, Kate Leahy
• A Householder's Guide to the Universe: A Calendar of Basics for the Home and Beyond - Harriet Fasenfest
• Your One Year Old: The Fun-Loving, Fussy 12 to 24 Month Old - Louise Bates Ames, Frances L. Ilg
• Your Four Year Old: Wild and Wonderful - Louise Bates Ames, Frances L. Ilg
• Your Six Year Old: Loving and Defiant - Louise Bates Ames, Frances L. Ilg
• Chez Panisse Cafe Cookbook - Alice Waters
• I'm Still Scared - Tomie DePaola (Read Aloud)
• An Invitation to Indian Cooking - Madhury Jaffrey (again)
• Things Will Never Be the Same - Tomie DePaola (Read Aloud)
• The Well-Trained Mind: A Guide to Classical Education at Home - Susan Wise Bauer, Jessie Bauer
• Bringing Up Bebe: One American Mother Discovers the Wisdom of French Parenting - Pamela Druckerman
• The King of the Golden River - John Ruskin (Read Aloud)
• A Charlotte Mason Education - Catherine Levison
• A Home Start in Reading - Ruth Beechick
• The Voyage of the Dawn Treader - C.S. Lewis (Read Aloud)
• What a Year - Tomie DePaola (Read Aloud)
• On My Way - Tomie DePaola (Read Aloud)
• The Hip Girl's Guide to Homemaking - Kate Payne
• Fat: An Appreciation of a Misunderstood Ingredient, with Recipes - Jennifer McLagan
• The Essential Oils Handbook: All the Oils You Will Ever Need for Health, Vitality and Well-Being - Jennie Harding
• The Mystery of the Periodic Table - Benjamin D. Wiker
• Here We All Are - Tomie dePaola (Read Aloud)
• 26 Fairmount Avenue - Tomie dePaola (Read Aloud)
• The Complete Illustrated Guide to Aromatherapy: A Practical Approach to the Use of Essential Oils for Health & Well-being - Julia Lawless
• Earthly Bodies & Heavenly Hair: Natural and Healthy Bodycare for Every Body - Dina Falconi