the y life

Oliver

2010-11-07T14:32:00.000-08:00

Some notes about the newest addition:

The best sleeping baby I've had. Only wakes up a couple times a night (please, please, don't let me jinx myself!) and will nap through almost anything.

October 1st

October 2nd

October 29th; "Do you hear what I hear?"

He actually likes sleeping in the swing...maybe it's the motion? I think it's his second-favorite spot, behind a human chest, of course! The past couple days he's actually slept in the crib for a couple naps; no matter how good of a sleeper you are, you will most undoubtedly be woken up by your 3-year-old brother parking his semi-truck underneath your swing and screaming "HONK! HONK! HONK!" as loudly as possible.

Oliver has been smiling for almost two weeks now, and laughing occasionally. It took me awhile to finally get some good smiley pics:

I love pictures where all the baby appendages are blurry, yet the head is still!

Having his parts exposed are his happiest time, can you tell?!


The crazy-wide-eyed look.

Oliver absolutely loves Danny and Isaac already. He'll actually calm down to them "shhing" him sometimes, when he won't for me! And they're amazing with him: they've gone to the swing, when I've had to set him down and he's fussing, and made him happy again. They delight in making him smile, even bragging about it. Sometimes they fight over who gets to kiss him first. They have yet to freak out when he's crying, when even I feel like freaking out! They want to be present at every.single.diaper change. They have taken to big-brotherhood like ducks to water. I love it.

"Hi, this is Oliver. I'm a baby, so I can't talk." Danny's narration, not mine!

Oliver loves baths, too. His first three baths, we just had him take in the big tub, with Chris. And he hated it. Finally, I gave him one in the little baby bath, while Danny and Isaac were taking their bath, and he loved it. And has ever since. I think the big bath was just too big and he didn't feel secure enough. There are some better pics, but they all are naked ones, and this is a public blog...

He's starting to hold his head up pretty good, and greatly enjoys kicking and flailing around. He's gotten pretty irritated in the Moby at times recently, I think because he's had enough of the being-held-so-tightly-to-mom business!

And to think we're only 9 nine days from his 2-month birthday! Flying, flying, flying.

Halloween 2010

2010-11-07T13:55:00.000-08:00

A dragonfly and a dragon.

Funny how it came about: Danny decided to be a dragonfly way back in summer, when they were plentiful, and never changed his mind. The second Danny decided to be a dragonfly, Isaac decided to be a dragon, and never changed his mind. Fickle children I have not. Must have gotten it from Chris. In the beginning, Isaac repeatedly talked about how he would be a mean dragon, and shoot fire from his eyes. Then something shifted, and he decided to be nice, so we could pet him.

I was so nervous for trick-or-treating. Chris had to work, so I had to go it alone. However...Danny and Isaac were great, neither were scared of anything, and Oliver slept the entire time. We did our neighborhood first; Luna, the boys little buddy from down the street, joined us halfway through, so that was fun. We came back to the house for the wagon and then crossed the street for a little more candy. Danny was the one who made the decision to come home, and Isaac didn't argue. All together, we were gone for 1 1/2 hours. Perfect.

The aftermath of trick-or-treating:

Sugar coma.

Notice the chocolate smeared all over his face...

I gave the boys the go-ahead to eat all the candy they wanted immediately when we returned home. They barely made a dent, I was slightly disappointed!

Our bowl of candy we'd left on the porch was surprisingly still full. I asked the boys whether I should leave it out, or if they wanted to answer the door while I nursed Oliver. They were very enthusiastic about answering the door. So they sat at the table, eating candy, and every time the doorbell rang, jumped down and went to hand out candy. Danny sat a few trick-or-treaters out, Isaac loved doling out the candy to the kids.

As for the pumpkins...we'd done a trip to Pomeroy Farms, way back at the beginning of the month, and promptly carved the boys pumpkins after that (Chris did them, after the boys picked what they wanted). They rotted by mid-month; I thought they'd last longer. Luckily, Danny's preschool class took a trip to Bizi Farms, so they each got another pumpkin. We carved those the day before Halloween, and, surprise, Danny really was capable of doing his own! (He'd insisted with the first pumpkin, but 5-year-old + knife...I just couldn't picture it turning out good.)

This is Danny's "cat" pumpkin; the whiskers are the chunks out to the sides :)

And Isaac's 2nd ghost pumpkin; the kid is obsessed with ghosts. Danny added the nose after I did the eyes and mouth!

And the cutest pumpkin of all!

Don't worry, the Zeus was not excluded from the Halloween festivities:

ROAR! I'm a dinosaur! ROAR!

Time to start up?

2010-11-07T13:19:00.000-08:00

I've been thinking a lot about writing lately. I enjoy writing, and I want to be better about doing it regularly, mainly just so I have this to look back on and remember, in greater detail, my life at this point. These babies are growing too fast, and doing too many things, saying funny things, observing the world around them so astutely...I need to remember this all.

And now that Oliver has made his entrance and things are settling into something of a routine again, I think I may have the time and energy for it again. We'll see :)

Today I was reminded of writing while making breakfast: Danny and Isaac were in watching their ritual Sunday morning cartoons on PBS (the HD antennae wasn't working, alas, so no Thomas this morning; they settled for Dinosaur Train) and Oliver was snuggled up in the Moby with me. I've been pretty lazy with breakfast since Oliver's birth, so I wanted to do pancakes this morning. Danny requested apple pancakes and Isaac helped me make them.

Everything was just so perfect...Isaac helped me so well and Danny was content playing in the living room, so there was no fighting; Oliver was happy and asleep and warm; my coffee was perfect, and with eggnog to boot; I had made bacon wrapped persimmons as an appetizer, one of my fave things; and our pancakes were delicious (sour cream for half the milk, laced with cinnamon, topped with maple syrup); and the late fall sun was peeking out through the clouds, warming up the kitchen so nicely. It was wonderful. It's what makes me happiest and I absolutely, positively, never-ever want to forget it.

Haircuts

2010-07-18T11:25:00.000-07:00

Oh, I miss the long hippie-surfer hair already (June 15th)...

Before:

After:

Danny has to have hair long enough to twirl, so his didn't get cut nearly as short. And I have to admit, they're such handsome little boys under all that hair :)

And some pictures of Chuck, because he was so cute.

And the boys, on their bikes, on the deck. They must spend at least an hour each day doing this. I'm not sure what I'd do without that deck and those bikes...

What happens when I don't get out of bed...

2010-07-18T11:14:00.000-07:00

It's even funnier when you find out that these were taken by Danny (on June 4th, at 8:30 in the morning)...

Huevos Rancheros

2010-07-18T11:06:00.000-07:00

One of our favorite family vegetarian dinners--which is amazing, I don't think we ALL agree on many dinners.

Not that huevos rancheros is that hard to make, but this one was kind of special, for a few different reasons.

First off: the beans. I did them in my slow cooker (after soaking the dried beans overnight), and they were the best beans I've ever made.

Cuban Black Beans

This is from a Betty Crocker Slow Cooker Cookbook. They don't have you soak the beans beforehand, but I don't think that would have turned out as good.

1 pound dried black beans (about 2 cups)
1 large onion, chopped
1 large bell pepper, chopped
5 cloves garlic, chopped
2 bay leaves
1 can diced tomatoes, undrained
5 cups water (I only did 3 or 4 cups since I'd soaked my beans)
2 T olive oil
4 tsp cumin
2 tsp finely chopped jalapeno
1 tsp salt

Mix all ingredients in slow cooker; cover and cook on high heat setting 6 to 8 hours, or until beans are tender and most of the liquid is absorbed. Remove bay leaves before serving.

The salsa was a little special, too. Last summer, after canning almost an entire year's supply of tomato sauce and diced tomatoes (I only ran out a couple weeks ago, just in time for fresh tomatoes...), I still was getting too many tomatoes from my garden. Brenda and Tom had read to just freeze them whole and that they would thaw under hot water easily. So I froze a few gallon Ziplocs full and had yet to use them. I pulled out a bag and ended up making this salsa with them.

I let the tomatoes thaw slightly, and drain a little. I put garlic, jalapeno and onion into my food processor and chopped them pretty finely. Then I threw the tomatoes in, coarsely chopped, with cilantro and salt, and continued processing until it was the consistency of salsa I wanted (not very chunky, in this case). This made such good salsa! I couldn't believe how good the tomatoes still tasted--and they never got freezer burnt.

The last "special" ingredient was our sour cream...which wasn't sour cream. I had needed whey recently, and after draining the whey, you're left with what most people refer to as yogurt cheese. We were out of sour cream (quite a rarity, actually), but I subbed in the yogurt cheese and my sour cream loving children were none the wiser. Danny was actually surprised when I told him what it was.

To assemble our huevos rancheros, I spread the beans on a corn tortilla, sprinkle with cheese, add the egg (sunny side up is what our family likes), then top with salsa, sour cream and whatever other Mexican food type accompaniments we have on hand (avocados, this night).

Karin and Randy--almost two months late :)

2010-07-18T10:45:00.000-07:00

At the end of May, we finally got to see Karin and Randy--it had been almost two years, I think, which is so awful.

Unfortunately, the weather was horrible while they were here: I'm not sure about May, but June was the rainiest June we've had in 15 years...May couldn't have been too far behind it! My garden literally drowned--carrots, lettuces, and peas never even poked their heads up and my spinach bolted after about 2 weeks. Only the peas have ever been replanted (we ended up with a nice crop though!).

So...Chris' mom wasn't too happy with the weather! But despite that, we had a nice visit and did quite a few things. I actually think the rain wasn't too bad while they were here, but it was overcast the entire time.

We did a trip into Portland to visit Powell's and Voodoo Donuts, then ate dinner at the Berlin Inn, Chris' favorite German restaurant he's found, so far. And Chris and his mom loaded up on German goodies and cold cuts at their little adjacent shop.

Their visit fell on Memorial Day weekend and the Shawa clan was meeting at the beach, so we went down there to join in. Dad had arranged housing for himself, Susie, Ava, Brenda, Tom, and Bean (oh, Pua and Annie, too) at a condo, and then for our family (plus Zeus) and Chris' parents at a friends' cabin; Reema, Don, Michelle, Josh and all three of their dogs rented a house; and then Jamal and Naseem (each with a friend) were going to stay at Grandma's. However...our "cabin" was uh, not the nicest digs. So I managed to convince everyone involved that the teenage boys would really be better off switching with us, which ended up working for everyone!

So...14 adults; 4 teenagers; 4 little kids; 6 dogs. It was chaotic. It was my family at their best and I loved it :) I think (I hope), Karin and Randy did, too!

Of course we had to go to the beach while we were in Long Beach: we first stopped at Waikiki Beach, where there was a beached baby seal. It was so sad, but they do this, for whatever reason, and it was neat for the kids to see.

There are also tons of rocks (and driftwood, obviously) on Waikiki, so it's a fun place for kids to play.

The boys also played in an existing driftwood fort, but no one took a picture of it. Apparently, none of us were doing well with the cameras this weekend...

Chris had become obsessed with the jetty, so from Waikiki we walked down to Benson Beach, and out onto the jetty. There were whales breeching right there off the jetty, so that was pretty cool. This was a pretty yucky day, misting heavily and cold, but Karin was a trooper :) And Danny walked a ton. Isaac ended up passed out on Chris during a piggyback ride back to the car, poor guy.

From there, we went back into Long Beach and met Brenda, Tom, Bean and Mom for pony rides for the kids. They don't look happy, but I promise they enjoyed it! Just the damn rain...

From here, I don't really remember the order of things. Blame it on a food-induced coma from all the good cooking that went on at Grandma's house: Don and Reema and their enchiladas; Susie and her cinnamon rolls and mac and cheese; Grandma's crazy seafood splurges (FIFTY pounds of steamer clasms); dessert after dessert after dessert...

We made it up to Oysterville, to the church where Chris and I were married.

And of course we weren't going to leave Oysterville without some fresh oysters. (So this must have been on our last day...). Then we drove the beach from the Ocean Park approach down to Cranberry, and stopped for some sand play and kite flying. We also saw a bald eagle flying around--this trip was just rife with wildlife!

When we got back to Battle Ground, one of Chris' best friends, Toby, and his dad happened to be driving through, so they swung by the house to say hi.

Then...we only had one day left. We took a trip to Moulton Falls and did a little walking. When we got home I fried up the oysters for lunch and an hour after that, Chris took Karin and Randy to the airport. The boys were pretty bummed to see them go, but they really enjoyed their time with Oma and Opa.

Update!

2010-07-18T09:39:00.000-07:00

Wow--almost two months has gone by. After that last post, Karin and Randy were here for a week; we've been to Walla Walla to see Dad and Susie; despite a horribly rainy and cold June, the garden is planted and doing well; we've gone camping and on our first kayaking excursion as a family; I've been knitting up a storm; I've cooked some great stuff I want to share; busy, busy, busy.

I can't believe it's July. My pregnancy is flying by; I guess having two older kids will do that!

And Brenda still hasn't had Daphne! Three days past her due date and counting...

Here's to hoping I'll maybe get some posts done on the above subjects!

Baby kicks

2010-05-24T22:19:00.000-07:00

Quickening

This baby moves inside me now

Sending messages at night-

Morse code

About life on the inside:

It is dark

But warm and quiet

With only muffled echoes softly pleading,

Wake up, little one.

I want to know you're in there,

Happy and safe.

Answers come again-

A sudden flutter-

Secret lyrics of song with no rhythm.

Played with hands and feet.

Someday I will hear the song again-

A high-pitched, quick and breathy humming.

I will teach her that she's been singing that old song forever,

And reach out for little splayed hands

That have long since held my heart.

By Yvette Benavides

For quite awhile now, I've been trying, in vain, to write an appropriate baby post. But nothing I can come up with accurately conveys my experience being pregnant. And this post isn't going to do it, either, but I'll keep working on it.

I'm actually having a lot of trouble with the idea that this is my last pregnancy. I've loved being pregnant each and every time, though this has by far been the most relaxing, least stressful pregnancy.

With Danny's: I had only graduated three months before I found out I was pregnant; Chris and I hadn't been dating long; Chris was still in school and my job was paying me $25,000 a year (ie- we were broke); the pregnancy was a complete surprise; we planned and executed a wedding; for 3/4 of the pregnancy Chris lived in Spokane and I lived in Pullman; when I finally moved to Spokane, I then had to commute to Pullman; I switched from an OB-GYN to a midwife at 30 weeks pregnant. Yet I still did enjoy the pregnancy itself!

With Isaac's: Chris has just graduated when I got pregnant (we did this on purpose, this time); we moved across the state with a 15-month-old; and Chris was starting the ER internship--when the internship was over, he worked A TON in order to be saving up to buy our house. Luckily, we were living with Mom, Brenda and Tom (and soon Bean!); they helped immensely. Even though Chris was working a lot, I was definitely not lonely. And when Isaac was born, I had it good. There were always people to help me with Danny when I needed it. Looking back, I don't know how people introduce a second child under different circumstances! But this pregnancy was quite a bit more relaxed, and easier to enjoy.

This pregnancy...we're financially stable. Our relationship is the best it's been, and continually getting better. We have a house that is ours, with no impending move on the horizon. I have a wonderful midwife who has been with me for some time now. I'm physically in better shape. I feel like I am well supported in my family and friends (though I wish my family were closer...)

My only problem this pregnancy is that I just can't escape the feeling that this is it. Like, this is what my body was put here to do--when you look at it in a Darwinian sense--and it is all going to be over in this short time. Granted, I will still be nursing a baby for some time...but when that is over, my time of sharing my body with a child is completely done. In a sense, it will be a relief, but I know I will be extremely sad. I already am, just in anticipation of it.

Every time "Nicky" (what Danny, and now I, have dubbed the baby, though this is by no means what we are going to name him!) starts moving--and this is very frequently--I always stop whatever I am doing and try to revel in it. I'm trying to memorize that sensation of what it's like to feel a life growing inside me. Part of me thinks it's silly; because really, won't every woman who's given birth remember what it was like, the sensation of a hand dragging across the inside; the sudden flurry of kicks that come randomly. It's been very good for me, the idea of slowing down and soaking it in, as I've taken it and more broadly applied it to Danny and Isaac, too--this time with them is so fleeting.

I get upset with myself, because it really has taken me this long to begin to appreciate it all, and try on a daily basis to slow down and enjoy my children the way I should, the way they deserve. I would hate to look back and think I should have played and cuddled more, and cooked and cleaned less.

So Nicky...thank you. If this is why I was meant to have a third child, that revelation alone was worth it. I hope to be the most present Mama possible, looking to neither past nor future, but just enjoying you and your brothers and soaking it all in. Keep kicking, it's a good reminder :)

The Lost City of Z

2010-05-21T22:04:00.000-07:00

I've been meaning for awhile to start posting about the books I read. I forget books I read all the time, and I hate it. It's not necessarily because they're forgettable books, either, I just have a horrible memory. So I figured keeping track of them here would be handy, for myself.

The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon (by David Grann) was the first book I read on my Kindle! And it cemented my love of the silly thing.

This book was mainly about the exploratory career of Sir Percy Fawcett, a British soldier, and his obsession with the Amazon rain forest and the idea that there was a whole lost civilization waiting to be discovered (El Dorado, as it has been termed throughout history). It also detailed a lot of the history of Amazon exploration. And quite a few nasty, scary jungle diseases.

Fawcett, and others, make many trips into the Amazon, continually mapping new area and searching for the fabled city. Many of the explorers fail to return, and are never heard from again, which prompts even more to head into the jungle to find out what happened to their comrades.

This was a pretty good non-fiction read. I love that non-fiction writing has gotten so entertaining; nothing dry and boring like you were forced to read in high school. The author of this book actually ends up becoming slightly obsessed himself (apparently it happens with the Amazon, though I'll admit I'm content to read about it and watch shows on National Geographic), and going into the forest on the path to find out what happened to Fawcett.

Apparently it's also being turned into a movie, starring Brad Pitt. Too bad they picked Brad Pitt for it; the man has completely lost any appeal to me since shacking up with Angelina Jolie.

But back to the book: a good, entertaining read.

Moulton Falls

2010-05-21T21:40:00.000-07:00

It's taken me awhile to finally post this!

A week and a half ago, Chris drug me and the kids out of the house on a little walk at Moulton Falls. This was kind of rare, normally I'm the one rarin' to go on the hikes, dragging Chris out. I'll admit I was a little cranky with it all, too, but it turned out to be a great little walk and we found Yacolt Falls, which surprised us. Thanks babe!

Moulton Falls is just past Lucia Falls, another few miles. There's actually a trail connecting the two; we really want to do that one, and now that we've been there and seen the trail, I think it'll be possible, with the jogging stroller.

The actual waterfall itself is right next to the parking lot. You just go down a little flight of steps, and boom! there you are.

I had trouble getting a good picture of the falls, b/c of the angle of the rocks. It was pretty, though nothing mind blowing.

The actual trail starts on the opposite side of the parking lot; you walk across a little bridge running parallel to the road. This bridge crosses where the Yacolt River is dumping into the East Fork of the Lewis River.

Isaac was afraid to ride his bike across the bridge! Chris had been here before, on a mountain bike ride with a friend, so he knew the trail was going to be bike-friendly. Right across the bridge there were the cleanest restrooms I have ever seen in a county park--maybe b/c peak season hasn't picked up too much, but I was impressed!

The trail was very wide, made of compacted gravel, definitely no crazy hiking or anything. It slopes up and around, to a high bridge. The hill wasn't steep at all though, both boys made it up on their bikes without a problem.

And then it was pretty much a flat walk along the river.

I think I need to quit letting them pee in the backyard so much. I also love how when one does it, the other has to immediately follow suit: monkey see, monkey do. Luckily the trail was empty at this point.

This little wet hillside...

...was swarming with these crazy centipede-y things:

Disgusting, yet fascinating. There must have been a huge hatch or something that had just happened. We kept seeing them periodically on the trail, along with some HUGE black beetles. I think Danny had to stop and examine every. single. beetle. But it's cute, and it's why we take them on hikes!

Danny loves waterfalls, of any shape or size :)

And then the crazy boy insisted on wearing this stick in his helmet, for the entire last half of the hike. I love his face here.

We made it back to the car, slowly. There are tons of other trails linking to this one, some just small little jaunts down to the river and picnic spots, some connecting into extensive trail networks (Bells Mountain and then tons of hikes on Silver Star Mountain--there are sooooo many of these that Chris and I want to do. It will be fun as the kids get older exploring this area and becoming more familiar with it. I totally take for granted that I have all of this practically right out of my door).

When we got back to the little bridge right by the parking lot, we noticed a trailhead immediately across the road. I asked Chris if he knew what it was; he didn't, and suggested we check it out. I hesitated, mainly b/c I'd carried Isaac for about half a mile, but we decided to go for it.

This trail was much more narrow, the kind of trail I grew up on, backpacking with my parents. However...Danny and Isaac absolutely loved it! They tore down this trail at a speed that I had to walk fast to keep up! They'd both been dawdling along the other nice trail, Isaac ended up being carried--but no sir, not on this side. And we were rewarded with beautiful little Yacolt Falls. We had been about to turn around, Chris went just a bit further and heard the roar of water...so of course we kept going.

There was a fun little steel bridge to cross (well, Isaac didn't think it was fun, though Chris did coax him across on the way out). Apparently it's a drawbridge, I have no idea why.

There's actually two falls, split by the rocks--the one on the right is a little obscured by the maple tree, but it's the best I could do. You can hardly see Chris in this picture, he blends in nicely to the rocks!

Um, I promise even though some of these picture look a little dangerous, the boys were safe the entire time!

Everything Chris and I found online totally downplayed Yacolt Falls. We had no idea what it was when we found it: the only sign was one with Clark County park rules, nothing telling the name of the river or falls. However, we were all far more impressed with Yacolt Falls than with Moulton Falls! It is peak waterfall season right now, especially with all the rain we've had, so I guess it could be flowing a lot heavier than normal. We dug it though :)

Cabbage Pizza

2010-05-21T18:39:00.000-07:00

Sounds disgusting, right?

NO! Make it, now! It has to be the cheapest, quickest, most delicious thing I have stumbled upon in a long time. Danny and Isaac loved it. I think Chris would have liked it, were he home to try it. Unfortunately, I'll probably eat it all tonight.

This recipe is found at 101 Cookbooks, one of my most favorite food blogs. She actually calls the recipe Japanese Pizza, but the kids were calling it cabbage pizza. It's nothing like pizza, really a sort of cabbage fritatta. Apparently it's big in Japan.

I re-found this recipe about a week ago, and have been obsessed with it since (this happens to me a lot--I can't decide if it's totally unhealthy that I get obsessed by food, or a good sign that I just love to cook...). I can't believe it took me this long to make it, but I've been lazy about cooking and tired at night, so it's gone by the wayside.

I didn't have a leek to use in the cabbage mix, so I chopped up half of a small onion and tossed it in. I also cooked it in mostly bacon grease, with a little olive oil thrown in. I was kind of freaked out about flipping it, but Heidi's directions are ingenious; mine looked just as pretty as hers. Gah, if only I wouldn't have been so starving and would have stopped for two seconds to take a picture :(

I also didn't have a green onion or slivered almonds, her suggestions for a garnish. I used toasted pine nuts and goat cheese on my first slice, which was delish. On my second slice, I slathered it in Mae Ploy sweet chili sauce; also yummy (though not as healthy). And now, every time I go back in to the kitchen, I just keep eating slivers of it plain. So, so good.

Toothpaste

2010-05-15T09:30:00.000-07:00

For a couple years now, we have been using fluoride free toothpaste. Our drinking water here is fluoridated--which I wish it wasn't--and I don't feel confident enough in the research that has been done to demonstrate the safety and efficacy of fluoride. There's a lot of into on the internet, and even books have been written--I borrowed The Fluoride Deception from a friend and though I didn't finish reading it (I wish I would have now), the first 100 pages were more than enough to convince me!

The kids have been using Tom's of Maine fluoride free silly strawberry and I have been using various other fluoride free Tom's of Maine flavors. Chris has been using a toothpaste that we brought back from Germany (which I really like, too, but I feel bad using it; I have no clue as to the ingredients, but I think it's more "natural").

I had a recipe for a homemade tooth powder. I love making my own stuff: saves money (yay for my budget!); saves packaging (yay for the environment!); and I'm in control of all the ingredients (yay for QC!). However...it was disgusting. I gagged a few time during the initial use. I toughed it out for a few days, in which it got slightly easier, but I normally look forward to brushing my teeth (thank you, Sonicare, my personal mouth massage), and I was dreading it every morning and night with this stuff. It's main components are baking soda and white clay powder, then it had myrrh, dried peppermint and raspberry leaves, yellowdock root, and essential tea tree and peppermint oils. It was really salty (I think maybe the white clay powder?); it looked disgusting when spitting out (like chewing tobacco--all yellow); and the herb leaves kept getting stuck in my teeth (I had given it a good spin in the blender, in the mason jar I mixed it in, but to no avail, apparently). The powder texture wasn't doing it for me either, but I think that has something to do with being pregnant, and I think I could overcome that problem. It did do a good job of cleaning: my mouth felt nice and fresh. I feel like my teeth were getting slightly dingy with it though (yes, coffee will do that to ya, but my other pastes were tackling the problem fine).

So yesterday at Fred Meyer's, I was back to purchasing my Tom's of Maine, and for some reason decided to look at the ingredients: imagine my surprise when sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS) popped up on there! I started checking all their toothpastes, and every Tom's of Maine toothpaste at my Fred Meyer's contained SLS (their website does address SLS concerns, and apparently they have a line of SLS-free toothpastes, but probably not as widely available). Then I checked Burt's Bees new line of toothpastes, and yep, SLS in all of theirs I could find also.

I'm not sure if the SLS has been there all along or if the buyout of both of those companies (Colgate now owns Tom's of Maine, and Clorox owns Burt's Bees) brought about formula changes. I've become more discerning in my label reading and in what ingredients make my "natural" cuts, and I'm bummed that this one slipped through the cracks for so long. Skin Deep only lists SLS as a 3 on their scale of 1 to 10, making it a "moderate hazard", but I've been avoiding it in shampoo, conditioner, and body washes, so why in the world would I put it in my mouth?!

In the end, I chose Jason Powesmile all-natural whitening toothpaste.

Seems like a good choice after checking the SkinDeep review: it scored a 2 and the highest concern comes from contamination of the grapefruit seed extract; I suppose I'm not going to get rid of that unless I am mixing my own toothpaste and purchasing the ingredients from a highly reputable source. Plus, it tastes fine and my teeth look nice and bright and feel good when I'm done.

I'll probably be keeping my eyes out for another toothpaste recipe; anybody have any to share?

Chocolate syrup

2010-05-12T20:00:00.000-07:00

I have been having some intense chocolate milk cravings lately.

I cannot use Hershey's syrup though. Not with an ingredient list as follows:

High fructose corn syrup, corn syrup, sugar, water, cocoa, contains 2% or less of: potassium sorbate (preservative), salt, mono- and diglycerides, polysorbate 60, xanthan gum, and vanillin (artificial flavor).

Polysorbate 60 tastes so good; and why splurge on vanilla when you can just use vanillin, right?

Yuck. I'm not sure why we have a bottle in our fridge still. It actually expired in May 2009. Maybe it's time to throw that out. I'm sure potassium sorbate doesn't keep things good that long.

Of course, by now, there are multitudes of "organic" chocolate syrup out there. But when even Azure is selling a 22 oz bottle for $4.15...not really in my grocery budget. I don't care what people say, eating more natural, local and organic foods is waaaaayyyyyyyy more expensive. So I don't buy stuff like this in order to keep a somewhat reasonable grocery bill.

But when I have a craving, I get motivated, and hey, if Hershey's and Santa Cruz Organic can make it, why can't I?

I can, very easily, it turns out. I looked at a few recipes and combined a couple to make what I deemed appropriate. I really wanted to do Alton Brown's, just because I love him and his show, but I didn't want corn syrup in my chocolate syrup. If my agave nectar wasn't missing, I'm thinking I could have subbed that in (and yes, the agave nectar is missing. I...am speechless about that. I know I opened a new bottle only a couple weeks ago. I'm blaming it on Chris, but guaranteed it turns up somewhere in the black hole of our pantry soon).

I used rapadura for half of the required sugar; I think next time I'll go with a full 1 c. of rapadura and 1/2 c. of sugar. I actually prefer the taste of rapadura by this point, and I think that the rest of the family is ok with that.

Chocolate syrup

Makes approx. 2 cups

1 1/2 c. water
1 c. cocoa powder
3/4 c. sugar
3/4 c. rapadura

Bring the above ingredients to a simmer over medium heat. Simmer a few minutes to thicken up a little. Remove from heat and add:

pinch of salt
1 tsp. vanilla

Let cool and store in fridge.

I thought ours tasted almost exactly like Hershey's syrup. I was hoping for something a little better, but I think it's because of the nasty cocoa powder I purchased from Azure. I was being cheap and bought their bulk, unnamed organic cocoa powder. Next time, I will splurge on the Rapunzel brand, or even just can the whole organic thing and stick with a more high quality cocoa (mmmmm...Scharffen Berger....). In the meantime, I have a 5-pound bag of cheapy stuff to plug through--well, it's at least half gone by now.

Hahaha, beware if I bring you brownies...you only think I'm being nice :)

Coconut deodorant

2010-05-12T11:34:00.000-07:00

For a good year now, I have been eyeballing this "recipe" for homemade deodorant. It consists of coconut oil, baking soda, and either cornstarch or arrowroot powder (these can be used interchangeably here, as well as in cooking).

Deodorant has been a hard one for me to go more natural on. I am not willing to be stinky. Mascara holds some sort of sway over me, too--I refuse to quit wearing it (I do wear a safer one on most days, but it's not waterproof, so I bust out the nasty stuff on rainy days...and uh, I live in SW Washington...)

So I've continued to wear my beloved, but most likely cancer causing, Dove deodorant (actually, that Skin Deep link was more promising than I'd thought it would be!). I tried a couple varieties of Tom's of Maine; a Jason deodorant; some other brand I forget that was neroli orange and patchouli scented; and a really cheap one I found at Fred Meyer's. I wasted a lot of money, because they all really, really sucked.

Finally, the day of the ultrasound, when I was antsy and tackling my list of things to make homemade (remember the mayo? There was dishwasher soap, as well), I made the deodorant. I chose to make it with arrowroot powder, and I used a little more of the dry ingredients.

This deodorant is amazing. It did take some adjusting to sweating again--most deodorants are antiperspirants as well, so most people don't sweat under their armpits anymore. Probably not a good thing, as part of sweating is getting rid of toxins--makes you wonder if it's not the deodorant chemicals that should be linked with breast cancer, but the fact that your body isn't able to excrete toxins it would normally be rid of, so they build up...just a thought.

I was concerned that the oil in it would cause staining in my clothes, but I've been using it for well over a month now and haven't noticed anything so far.

I haven't put this deodorant through a rigorous workout (those went out the window at about week 15 of pregnancy), but it did hold up nicely through a few yoga classes, a couple hikes, and the few 70-degree days we've had. And, I have to admit, I usually only shower every other day; this stuff holds me over without a problem. I am a fairly stinky person, too. Chris swears that he can go without deodorant with no problem; I am not so lucky.

As an added bonus, my armpits smell like coconut; reminds me of my days of tanning in college, except most likely now I am not giving myself skin cancer :)

Bedtime stories

2010-04-24T19:48:00.000-07:00

When Isaac moved into Danny's room, probably about three months ago now, I was really unsure about how bedtime was going to go. Three or four nights of the week, bedtime is solely my duty, and I was very pessimistic about it! I figured the boys would keep each other awake way past bedtime, messing around, I'd have to go in every ten minutes and tell them to be quiet...

I really should have just been more optimistic. They dealt beautifully with it. I think one of the things that has seriously helped was instituting chapter book reading.

Our bedtime routine normally involved pajamas; brushing teeth; washing face and hands (and sometimes feet); two or three picture books out on the couch; and then I'd leave Danny, nurse Isaac to sleep in our room, come back for Danny and put him to bed. Oh yes, I also sang Wynken, Blynken and Nod to each before leaving the room (my dad used to sing it to us when we were little).

Um...it was exhausting. I'm glad it's combined now! Now, after stories on the couch, Isaac nursed (which he quit doing only a week ago, but that's another post), then we go to the bedroom together, both get in bed, lights are turned off and nursery rhyme is sung. Then mommy excuses herself to go get the chapter book and flashlight. We read one or two chapters (somewhere between 5 and 10 minutes worth, depending on how late it is and how the behavior has been), and by the end, Isaac is often asleep and Danny might as well be. It's great. They very rarely "talk" much after I leave. Reading relaxes me, so I guess reason stands that it must be soothing to them, as well.

The first book we started off with was The Tale of Despereaux, by Kate Dicamillo.

When I was first reading this book, I was a little startled by the dark tone of the novel. The boys didn't seem to mind it whatsoever though; I repeatedly asked Danny if it was too scary, and he always answered no. We didn't have any nightmares or any crazy talk, so I kept on with it. I actually really enjoyed the book, so that was a bonus! Isaac still talks about the Princess Pea.

Then we moved on to James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl.

I loved Roald Dahl immensely when I was young, so I was super excited to read one of his books. I almost bought a boxed set of them, then changed my mind for whatever reason, only to pull a box out of a shelf way up high in our closet and find it in there, along with many of my other old favorites! The boys also really liked this book. Dahl is as dark as Dicamillo was though, so I felt a little better about having read her book. I decided that when you think about it, lots of children's literature (and movies) feature death, dying, mild swearing...part of life that kids need to learn about, I suppose.

Then, we just finished The Mouse and the Motorcycle, by Beverly Cleary, last night.

I also liked Beverly Cleary's books a lot when I was young, though re-reading them as an adult wasn't nearly as exciting! I think this has by far been the boys favorite, which doesn't really surprise me, what with their love of all things on wheels. We'll be finishing the series of them, but I'm taking a breather with the next book!

Tonight we'll begin Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, another by Roald Dahl.

As much as I loved Roald Dahl, I never actually read this book, so I'm excited for it. I had actually planned on starting Charlotte's Web, but never got my trip to Powell's in; plus we've read enough animal books for now and Christa's son loved Charlie--I'm sure Danny will, too, and I can't wait to listen to Danny and Andrew discuss it at preschool!

I've been amazed with Danny's ability to remember what's going on in the books as we progress through the chapters. I quiz him almost every night, and he almost always recalls what we read the previous night.

I've been waiting to start this tradition for quite awhile, and am so glad that the kids are at an age where we can start enjoying books together! I just hope it lasts long enough that we might read the Harry Potter series--I have a feeling by that point they may be tired of reading only one chapter a night with mom :)

Long Beach

2010-04-24T19:01:00.000-07:00

Last weekend (as in a week ago, now!), we went to Long Beach for another clam tide and to see the family--my dad came into town to dig clams, and Brenda, Tom and Zellie went, so of course we had to go, too!

We had a lovely trip, as we usually do. Chris got two limits of clams AND a limit of oysters, Tom brought his spring salmon to share--I think the kids and I have more than exceeded our mercury levels for the next year!

Only an hour after we got there, my dad had to park the tractor back in the warehouse, and invited the kids all along for a ride:

That probably made Danny's entire trip, right there!

My grandma had bought another ping pong table (they had one quite awhile ago, she got rid of it, and has now decided that it would be good for my grandpa to have to play on--and hot damn, he's pretty good at ping pong!!). Chris and Tom played a lot; I tried to see if Danny could do it yet, it was hilarious how he "played"; Zeus had found yet another ball that he loves--I'm not sure what's wrong with him.

Saturday, it rained almost all day. Brenda and I managed to get the kids out for a trek through the woods, which I didn't bring my camera for; we planned on going back with the camera, b/c the kids all loved it so much and there were a million good photo-ops, but we never made it back. So we spent the rest of the day trashing the house,

letting Zeus lick clean the windows and walls,

and then going downtown and buying a ton of candy and ice cream. I didn't take pictures of that; I'm hoping I'll forget it happened! I like to think we sort of offset it by coming home and eating salmon, salad and sweet potatoes...

I guess someone felt sorry for us, b/c Sunday was gorgeous.

Chris and Tom didn't return from clam digging and oyster picking/shucking for quite a while, but we were able to be outside, and my mom stopped by for awhile.

Danny worked on digging like a dog:

These next pictures are all of the same iris in my grandma's yard. My grandma dug up these roots from an iris HER mom had in their yard in Yakima. I think my grandma said she planted it five years ago, and this is the first year it bloomed. She was very happy, it was very pretty. I'll have to dig up some of her roots in a few years!

And I finally remembered to take a picture of my grandparents with all of their great-grandchildren!

When Chris returned, we headed down to the beach, for some bike riding on the Discovery Trail, lunch, and flying kites and building sand forts. If you're ever in Long Beach, take bikes for the trail! It's beautiful; I can't wait until we finally get a bike for me, and a bike trailer and we can bike the whole thing (hopefully this summer?). I have to brag, the trail was my dad's baby while he was city manager in Long Beach--I heard a lot about it, and it's neat to see it finally completed.

And then the camera batteries died. That beach photo is the only one I got--at least I made it pretty good! Chris, Isaac and I all ended up getting slightly pink from our time on the beach, it was that nice. We didn't get home until late, and poor Chris cleaned clams until after 10 pm--while yours truly sat on the couch watching Desperate Housewives.

Hey, it's hard work, photographing the family weekend.

Lucia Falls

2010-04-15T22:22:00.000-07:00

The weather was so beautiful yesterday and since I had nothing planned, I decided the boys and I should get outside for awhile. Danny and Isaac are suckers for picnics and waterfalls, so they were easily convinced.

I had actually initially planned on heading out for the Middle Lewis River Falls loop hike, but it turns out it was a bit more of a drive than I'd anticipated, out in the boonies, and I'll admit, being by myself, with a 2- and 4-year-old in the middle of the woods kinda freaks me out; I decided to save that little hike for a time when Chris is with us.

We settled for just Lucia Falls; we'd been there before, but not for a couple years. It's a nice easy walk, the waterfall is pretty, there's lots of picnicking areas AND it's only about ten minutes away. I think Danny will probably be making us go back.

Proof that they were excited:

Isaac kept clapping and yelling, "Yay, waterfall!" but I didn't manage to get it on camera. It was pretty cute though.

One of the cool things about Lucia Falls is that there are a ton of rocky areas to scrabble around on. We didn't do too much, since I was alone with two kids, plus we had Zeus and of course I had these terrifying images of one of my kids plunging into the river and I. cannot. hardly. swim. Being there with Chris will make the rocks a little more fun, or when the kids get older. Danny did really well climbing around, Isaac of course needed a bit of help. Zeus was a pain in the ass. :)

Danny tried really hard to get Zeus to pose for a picture...this is the best I got. See? Pain. Isaac's butt is all wet b/c he promptly fell down in some mud first thing when we got there.

We finally managed to get our "hike" started; the falls is less than a quarter mile from the parking lot, so you see it immediately and the kids were very hard to pull away from it. The trail forks from the falls/picnic area; we walked the portion along the river first (the southern part), then the trail went uphill (north) slightly and looped back to rejoin at the falls again.

Issac didn't make it much past this point--maybe 1/3 of a mile?! I always bring the Ergo along on these outings, so he got plopped in there, and was perfectly content to be carried the rest of the hike.

Poor Danny--probably 3/4 through the hike (it's only a mile), he got very tired and would have probably liked his own Ergo.

He was a trooper though, and finished up for me. We had to walk to the car and get our lunch; Danny was happy to wait back where I could see him, on a tree stump.

We ate lunch and then I let Danny have the camera the rest of the trip:

Danny said about the above picture: "The forest floor is really dirty, Mama."

This is "some very soft moss."

I love the two tree pictures. Gives you an idea of the sense of awe a little kid must feel, being so tiny is such a big place. Danny told me about these pictures: "The trees were so pretty." Awww....

And then Danny tried to take a picture of me and Zeus; Zeus was still uncooperative. But this kind of gives you an idea of the belly starting to emerge :)

We had a fun trip though, I'd recommend this as a good little picnic and hike site for kids. I'm even planning on taking my grandparents next time they're here!

Homemade mayo

2010-04-15T12:56:00.000-07:00

I have been planning on making this mayonnaise recipe for a very long time now. It's from Nourishing Traditions, by Sally Fallon. I've been trying to avoid soy as much as possible (though it's in virtually everything...disgusting), because of its estrogenic effects. Most mayo (think Best Foods or Kraft or any store brand) is made from soy oil. There are quite a few olive oil and canola oil ones on the market now, but I think they taste weird--reminiscent of Miracle Whip, which I hate--and they're expensive.

The Sally Fallon recipe calls for olive oil, but she says that if you find the olive oil taste too strong, that sunflower oil is a good substitute. A couple months back, I finally remembered to order sunflower oil from Azure; this bottle was $6.65 from Azure and I believe it was $11.99 at Fred Meyer's, which is why I kept waiting to order it from Azure!

And...it took me two months to finally make the mayo. The only reason it finally got done was due to my being incredibly antsy and anxious on Monday before our ultrasound--I always get nervous before any of these appointments, even my monthly meet-up with our midwives, like magically the baby inside me will have disappeared or something. Cleaning and cooking take care of my nervous energy

Anyhow, the mayo finally got made and I am so glad it did because it is the best mayonnaise I have ever tasted. And now when Danny and Isaac peel their mayo slathered bread off their sandwiches and eat it plain, I'm not cringing thinking about soy and they're not complaining of the taste. And it took a whole, oh, ten minutes, maybe. I can't wait for Chris to taste it, it hasn't passed his test yet, but I'm pretty certain it will :)

The recipe:

1 whole egg, at room temperature
1 egg yolk, at room temperature
1 tsp of dijon-style mustard
1 1/2 Tbsp lemon juice (I used store bought, but will squeeze my own in the future)
1 Tbsp whey (optional; I'll talk about it below)
3/4 to 1 cup extra virgin olive oil or expeller pressed sunflower oil, or a combination (I did 1/2 c. of each)
generous pinch of sea salt

In your food processor, place all ingredients except the oils; process until well blended, about 30 seconds.

Slowly stream in oils with the motor running, until thickened and well incorporated. Taste and check seasonings. You my need more salt and/or lemon juice.

Isn't it pretty and yellow? I had to place it on something white to show the effect from the nice pastured eggs we get. It's almost as yellow as our butter (which was surprising--the Organic Valley butter was on sale at Fred Meyer's and is so bright and pretty; their package says it's pasture fed, so I guess they're telling the truth).

The addition of whey gives a bit of a "fermented" spin to the mayo, adding beneficial enzymes and increasing nutrient content. It also stretches the shelf life from about two weeks to several months! Whey is super easy to make, too: simply purchase a quart of yogurt (preferably as fresh as possible), line a fine mesh sieve with cheesecloth and let the whey drip out, at room temperature (or the fridge is fine, too, if that grosses you out), into a glass container, for about 24 hours. Make sure and cover the whole thing if it's out on the counter so that flies can't get into it. Give it a good, gentle squeeze to get any residual whey. The leftover yogurt is often called "yogurt cheese" and can be used in a plethora of ways (cream cheese substitute is what we've mostly done). I've found the yogurt cheese to only keep for a couple weeks; the whey however will last several months, and can be used in other fermenting recipes. Sally Fallon has a lot more info in her book; the Laurel's Kitchen books also have recipes to use yogurt cheese.

Happy sandwiches!

Kings!

2010-04-11T21:45:00.000-07:00

It's amazing, but sometimes Danny and Isaac actually wear and play with the things I've made for them.

For about a month (last month), they were crazy into playing "kings". When they play "kings", they wear the felted birthday crowns I made for each of their last birthdays, have me tie the playsilks I dyed for Valentine's Day on them like capes, and then have me make scepters out of these crazy giant pipe cleaner things my grandma bought for them.

This particular day, "kings" got a little too crazy while I was making dinner, and it was beautiful out, so I sent them outside to play, where they chased each other in circles for a good half-hour.

And, most of the time, the scepters end up being guns. These children to do not actually own a toy gun. I don't know what it is that makes them create guns out of everything: swords, food, scepters, wands, sticks--Isaac's recent favorite is to stick a crayon perpendicularly into a wad of clay, with the clay being the barrel, and the crayon, the handle.

You can tell in these last two pictures they are saying, "Shoot, shoot", which is what they say, instead of bam, boom, bang or what have you that you'd normally associate with shooting. Reminds me of The Tale of the Bunny Picnic, a movie my sis and I still love, in which the dog says, "Bark, bark" instead of actually making the noise...

Yes, they're shooting at me, and yes, they were both admonished NOT to shoot at people. To which they turn and shoot at Zeus. And then I say, "Not Zeus, either! Go find the cats!" Hahaha...of course I leave out the part about the cats :)

Seeds starts

2010-04-11T21:22:00.000-07:00

Garden time has started.

Well, it actually started a month or so ago, theoretically, but the greens I planted (Lacinato kale, Savoy spinach and a type of lettuce I can't remember) are only just now peeking through, and only three of 20-some sugar pea seeds have decided to make an appearance. We had all this nice warm weather, which was then followed by a few frosts and quite a bit of rain.

It's a learning lesson, every year :)

So though my garden is going, I've been disappointed in myself that I had failed to do any seed starts. We don't have a ton of space for it in the house; I don't feel like spending the money on fluorescent lights and propagation mats and convincing Chris to clear out space for me in the garage; and, like the previous post mentioned, things have been busy.

I have missed the boat on doing seed starts of the cole crops (broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, brussels sprouts--pretty much all the things kids hate), b/c they like the cooler weather of late spring/early summer (cool for the Pacific NW, that is) and can be set out within the next few weeks. But today I realized, "Duh. Look at a calendar..." Six weeks from today is May 22nd: the perfect time of year for our area to start setting out the hot weather crops (tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, squashes--all the stuff people like when they think about gardening!). I say "six weeks" b/c that's the number the seed packets and seed purveyors give you for deciding when to sow your starts indoors: six weeks before your average last frost date. I surveyed multiple website and gardening books and came up with a range of "last frost" dates for my area, ranging from mid-May to end of May. The 22nd sounds perfect to me :)

I started off only planning to do seed starts of cukes and squashes today, and while googling to find how deep to plant cucumbers, came across the info that transplanting members of the cucurbit family (which includes cucumbers, winter and summer squashes, pumpkins...) is not a good idea! Apparently they do not like their roots disturbed, which is why most instructions are to sow them directly into the ground. However, a few websites said that for areas with shorter growing seasons, doing starts only 3-4 weeks before the last frost date would allow you a head start, but not allow the roots to get so large that they'll be easily disturbed. SO...with that info, I decided I will still do the starts, but not until the end of April. (As a side note: Courtney, I only have six of the Japanese climbing cucumber seeds. I'll just start them all, and if I have extra, they're yours!)

Today, in the end, I started red chili peppers, apple green eggplant, three varieties of cherry tomatoes (Sungold, Blondkopfchen and chocolate cherry), Japanese Trifele black tomatoes (these failed last year), and Jaune Flammee tomatoes. I also learned that ALL of these starts should be done in 3-inch diameter pots--something I have failed to do in the past. Smaller pots lead to leggy plants and poor transplanting success. Huh. Sounds familiar. Guess egg cartons weren't cutting it :) They should all also be transplanted into bigger pots when they get the first full set of leaves, then be moved to their permanent place outside when it warms up. I wish I could just follow directions instead of messing up for three years in a row *sigh*

I'm totally not holding my breath for any of those starts, but you know the fact that this year since I am not depending on them, that this is when they'll all do fabulous.

Now on the garden to-do list: replant sugar peas and sow a row of carrots within the next week.

And WSU's extension website looks like it's a fabulous source. I mean, I'm probably a bit biased, being a third-generation Coug and granddaughter of an extension research professor, but the "Gardening" link looks like some info I need to be reading. Everything from fruit plants, to vegetable gardens, to organic gardening, to master gardening program info...the list goes on. Beat that UW.

And, because I find blog posts w/o pictures kind of boring, here are some of the kids playing in the garden. They've really been enjoying having over half of the garden to dig holes, find worms, make construction sites, etc. This particular day, Danny refused to set foot in the garden b/c he was wearing sandals and didn't want dirt in them, so he played around the perimeter. Isaac refused to get off his bike, b/c he was waiting to load it in the car.

And Zeus is just funny:

And just to prove that some of my garden doesn't look awful:

All of the greens you can see in that picture overwintered--kale is the tall stuff in the back, and carrots are the closer, smaller greens. The kale was probably only a couple inches high in the beginning of January, but we had so much warm weather that it shot up, and we've had fresh kale. It's a bit tougher than the nice brand new stuff, and slightly more bitter, but not bad by any means. The carrots are still itty-bitty, but hey, I guess it's a bit of a head start. I thinned them out a couple weeks ago and the boys ate all of the tiny ones I pulled out! (Which, btw, you should cut the tops to thin them out, so you don't disturb the roots, but I couldn't leave them to rot in the ground when my children wanted to eat them so badly...)

And the raspberry beds look beautiful:

Yay for spring!

Easter

2010-04-10T22:43:00.000-07:00

Easter morning 2010 started off bright and early (for Danny and I--Isaac slept in), with chocolate:

This picture of Danny cracks me up--he looks like a half-awake pirate!

Isaac woke up and joined the festivities. Unlike Danny, who wandered around for a good 15 minutes before spotting the Easter baskets, Isaac zoned in on them immediately and beelined for the kitchen table.

This is what I call Isaac's "sugar zombie" mode. The focus and concentration this kid will put into opening up a foil wrapped chocolate...it's amazing.

Danny was really confused how the Easter bunny had gotten the baskets into the house. I was really confused how Danny even knows the Easter bunny. I never mentioned him; I get tired of lying to my kids about all of these fake creatures for every holiday and tooth loss, and making up these huge elaborate explanations and stories. But Danny knew, I guess probably from his friends? So I was just like, "Oh, well, Daddy must have seen them on the porch before he went to bed and brought them in." And lied anyhow, just like that. And keep lying every time I mention the cups or books that "the Easter bunny brought."

This was the first holiday where I've just let the kids go to town with the candy. Usually, I let them have a few pieces, interspersed with healthy meals and snacks. Easter this year was a free for all. Of course they were stoked; I'm still cringing a little. I'm not sure if this will be the rule in the future, we'll see.

My sister, brother-in-law and niece came over, followed shortly by my mom. My mom was wonderful enough to bring books as Easter presents, sans candy (big, big bonus points, Mom!).

While my sis, mom and I cooked brunch (eggs benedict, roasted asparagus, fruit salad, rhubarb creme brulee), Chris and Tom supervised Easter egg dying:

After we ate, Mom and I hid the eggs outside. We somehow managed to sneak the Easter egg hunt in between rain showers and wind gusts. There were some plastic eggs filled with candy (from the baskets my dad had given us--sorry, Dad, but they did enjoy it; Chris and I enjoyed the chocolate baskets!), one for each kid with money, and then half of the eggs the kids had dyed. Danny also demanded to know why "Mama and Nana hid the eggs, and how come the Easter bunny didn't." Slacking Easter bunny, I better have a talk with him before next year.

Alive!

2010-04-09T22:18:00.000-07:00

Amazingly, I haven't completely forgotten about this blog. Between first trimester pregnancy ickies and our absolutely insane month of March, I think I was lucky to keep the day-to-day running of our house up--I didn't even manage that every day. Such is life though, and I didn't let it bug me. Some things had to be let go for a while, and this blog was one of them.

I'm hoping now to be more regular again, if for nothing else than to keep something of a journal going!

So what happened to make life so crazy...

Being pregnant. Since we absolutely know that this will be the very last baby, I've tried very hard to enjoy it all. But let's face it--extreme fatigue and nausea suck, no matter how you slice or dice it. I don't think either Danny or Isaac's pregnancies left me feeling as tired in the first trimester as this one did. I also had about two weeks of very bad sleep--you'd think as tired as I was, sleep would have come easy. I all but quit working out for a month; we ate eggs for dinner more times than I now care to remember; naps (for me) started happening almost every day; and you can guess what the house looked like. And how unfair is it that coffee made me gag?

Chris' 30th birthday (March 13th), which I absolutely had to throw a party for--in Chris' defense, he asked me to call it off multiple times, but I HAD to throw him a party. By this point I was feeling much more energetic, but it took a bit of time to plan and coordinate. I'm glad I did it though, b/c we had a fabulous party and would you believe I took next to no pictures? Bad, bad, wifey. Couple that with my birthday only two days later, my grandparents in town, multiple birthday dates (absolutely NOT complaining!), and...

Isaac's surgery (March 17th). This was over and done with pretty quickly, but I think the emotional stress leading up to it took a bit of a toll on Chris and I--I was getting headaches, I think related to tension and stress! And it was a very minor surgery. I don't know how parents handle serious health issues. I suppose being pregnant didn't help, but I am very glad this is now in the past!

Between birthdays and Isaac's surgery, Chris had two full weeks off in the middle of the month (he termed it his "staycation"). I honestly can't remember a lot of what we did, but we were busy and had a lot of fun. There were many good walks, a few trips to Portland, too much eating out, some good yard work...we were very sad to see him go back to work, but alas, vacation pay kind of sucks and there's only so much accumulated vacation time. Now he has to start saving back up for the birth of the baby :)

In a nutshell, that's about it. I'm sure as I start sorting through and uploading pics, I'll remember more and I know I have some good pictures to post.

Danny's creations

2010-02-21T19:49:00.000-08:00

Danny has been amazing me with his building skills lately. He's actually beginning to plan and strategize and it's so fun to watch the wheels turning in his little head.

The first is his railroad track. I moved the railroad tracks to a bin in the living room and it's amazing the surge in popularity we've seen! Both boys make their own tracks--Isaac's are pretty random, just whatever piece he grabs. Danny started making small circles, and then pulls this out:

I was a little surprised. He was so proud of himself. And then Zeus broke it, though Danny took it very well.

And then there's his own Lego house. Him and Isaac were awake very early this particular morning and quietly went out and played Lego's and let me sleep. They love me :) Danny finally came in to wake me up, and did so by saying, "Mama, mama, LOOK at my house!" It was such a nice thing to wake up to.

Zeus, again, getting in on the action. Maybe he's a little jealous that he lacks opposable thumbs?

I swear this kid will be some sort of engineer. He chooses to watch the likes of How It's Made or Heavy Metal Task Force over cartoons and he's obsessed with taking apart and rebuilding, figuring out how this wheel spins or what to do if it stops. Though he assures me he wants to be a policeman with Jack :) I'm ok, either way!

Daddy's boys

2010-02-21T19:27:00.000-08:00

I couldn't resist posting a few pictures, all taken the last four days, which Chris had off.

The next two pictures are Danny's Lego house, which Chris was building for him until at least 3:30 am. I woke up and heard him scrabbling around in the Lego bin. He's crazy. I guess it's better than playing on Facebook though.

And Chuck, sleeping with Chris. Yes, he's sitting. And yes, he's weird. He stayed like that long enough for me to run and get the camera and take FOUR pictures.

Chris did do a lot more than sleep during his days off :) Like trim up the pine tree in the backyard to give me more landscaping fun and the grass a little more light. Thanks, babe!

Outer space pancakes!

2010-02-21T19:11:00.000-08:00

The last time I was at my grandma's house (about three weeks ago?), I was perusing a Williams-Sonoma catalog and happened to comment aloud about some outer space pancake molds ("Oh, how fun!").

If you know my grandma at all, you wouldn't be surprised to learn that on Thursday, a box from Williams-Sonoma showed up on my doorstep! I actually left it by the door forever, not able to figure out what I'd ordered, thinking maybe it was an early birthday present that I shouldn't open. After we returned from a Costco shopping trip that night, it dawned on me, so the boys and I ripped it open and found the outer space pancake molds. Danny and Isaac were VERY excited. So I promised pancakes in the morning.

Of course, they were a bit of a pain in the butt. And mine do not look nearly as pretty as the ones that Wiliams-Sonoma shows, but whatever. We loved them. And the recipe was absolutely delicious.

The last moon and planet got a little brown--there were a couple little boys who felt like fighting all morning and Mama got distracted.

Now for the delicious recipe:

Outer Space Pancakes

2 eggs, beaten until frothy (I think this was the secret)

2 C flour, sifted (I used all soft white wheat, of course)
2 t baking powder
1 t baking soda
3 T sugar
1 t salt

21/2 C buttermilk (had none, so I used sour cream watered down slightly--wouldn't have ever known!)
4 T melted butter
1/2 t vanilla

Beat eggs, set aside.

Whisk together dry ingredients.

Stir everything together, but just until it smooths out. Don't over beat.

YUM! I think these could have been soaked, too, of course I'll plan on trying it in the future.

Cars and trucks and things that go!

2010-02-10T21:41:00.000-08:00

Cars and Trucks and Things That Go! is a book, a very big book, by Richard Scarry. It is one of Danny, and now Isaac's, all-time favorite books. It has given me many hours of peace and quiet. I was brain storming preschool themes with Danny, and this book happened to be lying in eye sight, so I suggested it, and of course it was a winner.

For preschool each week, whichever family is hosting picks a theme, and most of our stations revolve around that theme.

For art this week, we had "painting" with cars: the kids drove a few various small cars through a shallow pan with some paint, then drove the cars onto the paper. I think Danny is waiting for a new piece of paper, here, and watching Grace work on hers. Painting seems to always be popular.

The sensory bin was our box filled with cornmeal, some black beans and some hard white wheat grains. We put in every small construction vehicle we could find, and the construction bin was born. Danny and Isaac played in this for several days prior to our preschool week, and are still playing with it a few weeks later.

Science on Tuesday was rolling different size cars down a ramp (not popular); on Friday it was building balloon-powered "cars" out of small cardboard milk jugs and lid wheels (very popular). The writing station had big pictures of various "things that go", with the words written underneath: "car", "bus", "airplane", "train", "motorcycle", and "van". This was not popular either, I think maybe because of me moving our table to a slightly lighter traffic area. Usually the kids really like writing.

Math had nothing to do with our theme, but I was excited to use these for preschool! Chris' mom bought the boys these magnetic triangles and squares, and they stick together to form 3-D forms. This was very popular; Danielle and Isaac played with them almost the entire first choice time. I've kept them out on the table and Danny and Isaac have been playing with them quite a bit. As a bonus, every time the cats or dog get close to any laying on the ground, they stick to their collars and...it's hilarious. So hilarious.

I think our last choice station was the role playing one; for that I had our car rug out in the living room, with the kids' parking garage. They didn't really play with that either. It's so funny, the things they like and dislike. Things that I think will be winners, flop. Things I'm not so wild about, they love. C'est la vie. I had actually come across an idea for playing "ice cream truck" for role playing, and I came up with all of these ideas to make fake ice cream and popsicles, to make the ice cream "truck", coins for "buying"...and I ran out of time and it just didn't happen. I think they would have loved it, so I'm kinda ticked with myself for not following through.

We played Red Light, Green Light several times throughout preschool this week. They loved it, and now Danny and Isaac and I are playing it fairly often.

It was a fun preschool week though, aside from fighting over the Strider bikes (totally on Danny and Isaac's part) during outside time on Tuesday. Preschool has been very fun this year, I think Danny is going to be very sad to possibly lose some of his buddies to kindergarten : (

Sprouting lentils

2010-02-10T20:58:00.000-08:00

I was cleaning out some nooks and crannies in the kitchen last week and found the sprouting screen I bought....last summer. I had made one (failed) attempt at sprouting immediately after buying it and gave up.

In case you're wondering: a sprouting screen is simply a piece of fine mesh-type material that fits perfectly over a Mason jar (a wide-mouth, in my case), under the screw band; they cost about $1-2.

My first sprouting attempt failed because I failed to pay close attention to the details. I soaked hard white wheat berries overnight, and then instead of rinsing and draining, I just kept filling the jar back up completely with water. No, no, no. After 4 days, they looked and smelled very gross and there was no sprouting happening.

What you're supposed to do: soak your grain/bean/seed, completely submerged in water, overnight. Very important to use filtered water, too. Chlorine is not conducive to life! The next morning, you drain, rinse, then set at a 45-degree angle to allow it to continue to drain. And you rinse as many times a day as you remember (ideally at least 4), and continue with the draining. This is why a sprouting screen is so handy--you keep the grain/bean/seed in the jar and just drain them through the screen.

I have what seem like millions of types of grains and beans around. I decided on lentils, just because they sounded good. I only have plain, old brown lentils; I've wanted to buy green French Puy lentils and the tiny black beluga lentils, but Azure doesn't carry either, and I forget to check every time I'm at Whole Foods. I'm at a loss for where else to look.

So...I filled up my Mason jar (a wide-mouth quart), approximately one-third full of lentils (probably about one cup), rinsed them a couple times, then filled the jar to the top and left them overnight.

Then, the draining and rinsing. To drain, I propped the jar at an angle in a cake pan, which turned out to be a bad idea, as the pan was metal. You'd think living in the Pacific NW, I would have a better grasp on what happens when metal is exposed to moisture continuously. My screw band, cake pan and sprouting screen were sporting rust within a couple days. So YOU should use a better contraption for draining, as I will next time :)

I started this on a Friday night, and the sprouts were about a half-inch long by Monday afternoon.

My jar was very full; next time I'll use a bit less lentils.

As it happened, the day after starting the sprouting, I checked 101cookbooks.com, one of my fave food blogs, and she had Palak Daal (an Indian lentil and spinach dish) posted as her newest recipe. I love daal. My lentils were sprouting. I had a huge tub of spinach from Costco. It was fate.

This picture is the lentils right when cooking started. Apparently I forgot to take one of the finished product.

In addition to reaping the health benefits of sprouting, the recipe cooked in one-quarter of the time (a bonus to soaking grains, also). I also reduced the water to only 4 cups, as the lentils had already absorbed quite a bit, and it was perfect. I didn't have the asafetida the recipe calls for; again, hard to find. We ate it with some homemade whole wheat flat breads (which I even managed to soak the flour for!) and yogurt, and I called it good for dinner. The recipe was really good, I'd recommend it, sprouting or not.

And now, I am planning more sprouting adventures. Chia seeds from Azure are next, then some soft white wheat, I think.

Excuses, excuses

2010-01-23T21:28:00.000-08:00

Keeping up with this blogging thing is a wee bit harder than I'd anticipated! I've been tired lately (more on that to come...hehehe, nothing bad though); we haven't been doing much that's overly exciting; and last week in my few spare moments I was busy working on a little article that I was asked to write for the Safe Chemicals, Healthy Families campaign.

To boot, I mangled my right thumb in Chris' car door on my way to a haircut appointment on Thursday (Wednesday? I can't remember) and everything is taking me twice as long. Sooooo...good excuses, no?!

And it's been beautiful weather here--between the rain storms. But warm: in the mid-50s! Early spring? I don't know, but it's making me think about my garden.

Here are some picture highlights of the last few weeks. I only had 36 pictures, so I haven't even been photographing much!

These next two pictures are from preschool, almost three weeks ago now! We were finishing the alphabet, so I did a "zoo" and "alphabet" theme. For their snack, I gave the kids toast, peanut butter, raisins, kiwi and banana slices to make animal faces. Danny made a monkey (all by himself!) and Isaac just made a mess :) I haven't put pictures of the other kids, just because I've left this blog public and I'm not sure how the other moms feel about that. There are three other kids there though!

The next two pictures are from one of the gorgeous days we've been having. We got home from the gym and the boys wanted to have a picnic on the deck. They even moved their little picnic table to the sunshine! Notice Isaac's lack of pants? (How could you not, right?!) His diaper leaked while I was working out at the gym--I received an overhead page, luckily right as I was heading to get them anyways, with Isaac screaming in the background! Poor guy. Anyway, he didn't want a diaper on for the ride home, so he just stayed diaper-less until naptime.

This is Isaac with his friend, Woolly Bear Bear. That's what Danny names every caterpillar he finds, and apparently Isaac does now, too. Right after breakfast Isaac spotted the caterpillar through the sliding door, and insisted on going outside and playing with it. Notice the pretty sky, too. I can't believe this picture was taken at 8:30 am, it looks like 6 am! Luckily the boys don't make me get up that early (usually).

Woolly Bear Bear actually hung out on our deck for several days, right by the door. Danny kept feeding him clover, that I think he was actually eating. And then, I am sad to report, he disappeared one morning. The boys had been out playing, and I had a bad feeling. My fears were confirmed when Isaac came in, took off his boots and yelled, "Mama! What is that?" It was Woolly Bear Bear, crushed on our floor. :(

And here are the kids zoning out on a cartoon. I don't usually do this, but I was almost finished with my book and really wanted to keep reading when naptime ended!! They looked so serious though, I had to take a picture.

So not only did I mangle my thumb on Thursday (or Wednesday), I also exploded a Pyrex casserole dish all over the kitchen that same night. I had gotten Isaac to bed and wanted tea ready when I was done with Danny, and turned on the wrong burner for the teapot. The burner I turned on happened to have the lasagna from dinner on it. I heard a loud sound and Zeus scrabbling around, but I though it was just Zeus being weird (he does this a lot). Then I started smelling something burning...

I have no idea what would have happened if someone would have been in the kitchen (notice the huge knife on the floor, also, flung from the blast). Thank goodness Zeus' food bowl was on the opposite side of the kitchen island--but no wonder I heard him peeling out of the kitchen (dog claws + wood floor = very loud and slippery). It was an absolute disaster. Nice thing though, we had a brand new Shop Vac sitting in the garage; Chris put it together right away and I put it to use! I've heard of this happening--the whole casserole dish exploding on stove burner--but stories fail to convey. So do the pictures.

Since then, I am happy to report that there have been no major accidents, though I did suggest to Chris that he increase my life insurance!

Failed Christmas knitting

2010-01-08T22:58:00.000-08:00

I have tried to write two posts on this already, but one got very long winded and way too detailed; and the other, I just got mad all over again looking at my pictures, and quit.

Which is what I do when I get frustrated. I quit. Well, maybe not so much anymore, motherhood has taught me a few things...

This year for Christmas, I wanted to make more handmade things for Chris and the boys. I elected to make a new beanie for Chris and slippers for the boys. I had things started in plenty of time and was confident all items would be done on or before Christmas Eve.

Hahaha...right. Isaac's slippers I did first, and they went pretty smoothly.

Danny's...didn't. These slippers are knit with an inner-sole attached to the body of the slipper, then a separate outer-sole is knit and attached. I wasn't going to have enough of the wool I'd purchased (from Conway Family Farms, on the Clark County small farm tour, and I can't wait to go back and visit them), so for Isaac's I'd simply used up some stash yarn for the sole. I had to buy some new yarn for Danny's, and bought an aran weight wool, when I'd needed worsted weight. And then I stupidly knit with it anyhow, even after I realized my mistake.

Danny's first slipper had to be fully ripped out, half-way through the outer-sole (ie- almost done). I ended up using different yarns for the inner- and outer-sole, but no one will see the inside, right?

Ha, no one will ever see any part of either of them because the boys hate them. That's right, they refuse to wear them.

I was felting the slippers the morning of Christmas Eve (very last minute, b/c we open family presents on Christmas Eve), but they were dry and wrapped in time.

I did manage to coax Isaac into them long enough to model--Danny couldn't even be persuaded for this and he normally loves having his picture taken. I'm pretty sure in the bottom picture that Isaac threw them at me after taking them off.

Chris' hat...was apparently sized for newborn babies. I knit the medium size, and when I had finished, according to the pattern, I was pretty sure it wouldn't fit on even Isaac's head. My fears were proven true. It was wayyyyyy too short, and as it had intarsia work (my first), I was worried that the stretching around the circumference was going to distort the pattern when Chris wore it (also proven true, later).

So I ripped the hat back to where the wave pattern had ended (it was knit from the brim up, and no way was I re-doing all the intarsia!) and added 15 rows, which translated to probably 2 1/2-3 inches. I have no clue what knitty was smoking when they published this pattern as it is. Furthermore, I have no idea what the model's mom was smoking to conceive a child with such a tiny head. Um, anyhow...

Chris' hat was completed, minus the weaving in of 80 bazillion strands (thank you, intarsia knitting) and in his stocking Christmas morning. It looks pretty just laying there, doesn't it?

As I said above though, the pattern gets very stretched out and distorted on Chris' head. So it's now Danny and Isaac's hat. *sigh* Chris was nice enough to wear it Christmas morning:

I asked Chris if he'd like me to make him another one, and he declined because "I don't wear hats when I have hair". He hasn't been buzzing his hair, but getting actual real haircuts--and looks, ahem, hot. Not that I didn't think he was before, but the hair...is nice.

Tonight, he left the house in a stocking hat. I guess that was his nice way of saying, "please, for the love of god, do not knit me any more hats."

So...my next knitting projects are for myself. :) Right now I'm working on Ice Queen #2. The first I am sending to Tracey, my BFF for her birthday (which was December 26th); this second one will be all mine! But the Ice Queen turned out beautifully; I didn't take any pictures after blocking it, just because it's a gift and I don't want my fat head stretching it all out and getting my dark hairs snagged all up in it. Tracey is very blond and has a phobia of dark hairs on her clothes and carpet, which I blame on my dorm roommate our freshmen year of college...but that's another story!

So if you want some of my knitting, and don't get it: blame it on Chris, Danny and Isaac. I've been rejected too many times recently!

New Year in Long Beach

2010-01-08T22:14:00.000-08:00

Well...let me amend my title. New Year's Eve was spent at home, on the couch, drinking wine with Chris. It's amazing neither of us fell asleep before midnight, but we made it.

New Year's day, we headed for Long Beach. There was clam digging for the weekend, and Chris has been very intent on becoming proficient in clam digging. And, judging by his haul, I'd say he has succeeded! He went with Tom (my brother-in-law) both nights, and they both got their limits, both nights! Good job, guys. I was very proud of Chris though, this was only his second time clam digging since we've been married, and if you haven't tried clam digging...it's fairly difficult. And cold. And gritty.

But, yum...fresh, fried razor clams? Nothing better. And complain though I did, through the cleaning, and then through the frying (I hate frying things: a) it makes a huge mess, and b) it stinks up the house), I ate and ate and ate my fill of clams. And my children? LOVE seafood. It's amazing. They scarfed the razor clams. They ate tons of steamer clams and crab and shrimp over the weekend (Grandma goes a little crazy on the seafood feasts when we're all in town). If only we could get them to eat greens that aren't disguised...

Anyhow, we had a fabulous weekend. Brenda, Tom and Zellie were there the whole time, also staying at my grandma's. I love having my extended family around, it brings back such wonderful feelings and memories of my childhood and adolescence. Brenda and I got to cook together, the kids all got to play (and fight), Tom and Chris seemed to have a good time together, Brenda made my grandparents watch Borat, we hooked up with Mom Sunday morning--nothing more you could ask for, right?!

Chris insisted on stopping outside of Chinook, to check out the swell of the river (this is the Columbia, if you're wondering). Of course the kids insisted on getting out. I took pictures from the warmth and dryness of the car :)

Danny and Zellie, in their "horse stall".

Chris and Isaac

The next two are for Dad:

Dancing...aka, running in circles and screaming

Zellie, eating the steamer clams straight from the shell!

Awww, I just want to hug you. Happy new year, my dear old dog :)

It's in their DNA.

Danny and Isaac, rocking Great-Papa.

Here's to many more wonderful memories in the LBW!

New Year...less plastic!

2010-01-07T15:49:00.000-08:00

I haven't made a New Year's resolution for awhile now, but then today, a few things coincided to make me decide to make one (and by publicly stating it, I hope to keep it): use less plastic!

The first thing happened this morning: Chris had left open a few links concerning The Great Garbage Patch. If you're not familiar with it, it is a floating island, comprised mostly of plastic, hovering in the Pacific Ocean between Hawaii and San Francisco, in the Pacific Gyre (essentially a big swirl of currents, from what I gather). It is the size of Texas. TEXAS. Holy crap, that is disgusting. I watched a couple of you tube videos on it, shuddered a few times, and thought about becoming even more radical in my environmental fanaticism. Oh God, my family is really going to think I'm nuts now.

At the grocery store this morning, I was pissed with myself for having to use a produce bag. I don't use them for most produce...but brussels sprouts? Kinda necessary. When I got home, I went through my stash of plastic bags (separated into reuse or recycle) and dug out the produce bags. These went into my collection of reuseable shopping bags and will be going with me to be reused at the store, for future produce.

Then, I had in my email inbox a you tube video attached to a blog I regularly read. The video is about a woman and her family's quest to use as little plastic as possible in 2009, and the results. It's only 5 minutes, watch it and it will teach you something.

So--there it is. My resolution. I may even try to set aside the plastic I can't recycle, just to see how little I can do. Chris, you asked for it by leaving those pages up!

Things I have to do:

figure out better alternatives to ziploc baggies and saran wrap. I could use some good suggestions here, as these are my weak points. I'm probably better than most, but...it's hard. What do you do with the pack of raw meat that you need to split?
get Chris to regularly take our reusable bags to the grocery store (this is a hard habit to get into, and he does remember...sometimes). When he does forget them, get paper! We actually need some paper bags, b/c our wonderful friend Zeus has to have something for his waste to go into.
purchase as much as possible in recyclable or compostable packaging. ie- I did switch to Tom's of Maine toothpaste in 2009 (partly b/c of the no-fluoride option, partly b/c of the aluminum tube that I can recycle). Speaking of, I just need to make my own toothpaste.
guests will drink out of glasses! No more plastic water bottle packs (we only bought one of these last year, for convenience at birthday parties, and there are still bottles left).
figure out a way to get around the plastic garbage can liner. The woman in the video says that, since her family composts, they only have "dry waste", but what about meat waste? Maybe they're vegetarians. I may need to give bokashi composting a try...
no more cheap plastic toys!!!! Easier said than done when you have a family as enthusiastic about toy buying as mine. Things like Legos, I'm ok with b/c they last and can be sold when my kids outgrow them. Family, are you listening?

That's about all I can think of now...but I'll add more, and list any finds I may happen upon, or any brilliant ideas.

Oh, and again, family? Listening? B/c you're all reading my blog, right? For my birthday, I want prettier cloth shopping bags, cloth produce bags, glass food storage containers, stainless steel bento boxes...you get the idea. I'm serious about this. Oh, a set of stainless steel or enameled cast iron pots and pans would be nice, too, but that's kinda off topic...:)

AND CARRY YOUR REUSABLE SHOPPING BAGS!

Meyer lemon yogurt scones (soaked!)

2010-01-07T10:17:00.000-08:00

Last night, on one of my billion trips out to the garage that I make every day, I discovered the container of Meyer lemons that I'd purchased on my last Costco shopping trip--with not a single one used yet. Time to get crackin' on those!

Lemon scones popped into my head, and I decided I would give it a go to try soaking the flour overnight, as I would already be using an acidic ingredient (the lemon juice), which you need to properly neutralize phytic acid and the enzyme inhibitors found in whole grains, to make them more digestible, and the vitamins and minerals readily available.

Unfortunately, I lack the experience to just whip up a scone recipe all by myself, so I needed a recipe to base my experiment on (I just need to make sure to get flour/baking soda/liquid ratios correct). I went to 101 Cookbooks, one of my favorite cooking blogs, as she uses whole grains and all-natural ingredients (and lots of good vegetarian recipes!). She had a couple scone recipes, and I chose the Raspberry mega scone for my purposes. My scones ended up hardly anything like hers, but I figure I better give credit where credit is due :)

I actually hadn't planned on using as much yogurt as I did--but I'd forgotten that I was out of milk and cream. So yogurt was the only option, and it ended up working great. I love when cooking mistakes turn out good.

These turned out wonderfully fluffy and moist, and delicious, of course! I couldn't even wait to come post the recipe, I immediately brought my coffee to the computer, and started typing :) Hopefully, more this afternoon on our trip to Long Beach, but in the meantime...

Meyer lemon yogurt scones

4 cups whole wheat pastry flour (made from soft white wheat; it'd be interesting to try out other grains here in the future)
4 oz coconut oil, chilled, cut into small cubes
1/2 cup fine grain natural cane sugar (I may try Rapadura in the future)
1/4 cup Meyer lemon juice (if you use regular lemons, you may need to increase the sugar, as Meyer lemons are slightly sweeter)
1 cup of whole milk yogurt
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp lemon zest (I find Meyer lemons a pain to zest, just to warn you--the rind isn't as thick, and seems to be more oily)

2 Tbsp baking powder (the original called for 3! That's a lot...)
1 tsp fine grain sea salt
1 Tbsp heavy cream or whole milk
coarse sugar (like Turbinado), for sprinkling

The night before:

In a food processor, pulse flour and coconut oil, until it resembles little pebbles in coarse sand (as with all biscuits in food processors, be careful not to overmix!!). Pulse in the sugar. Mix the lemon juice, yogurt, vanilla extract and lemon zest in a separate container, and pulse this in, until dough just comes together--this took a bit of pulsing in my processor. If the batter is too dry, add a little more yogurt (or heavy cream, or whole milk would work), a bit at a time. Place the batter in a glass bowl and cover to soak overnight.

In the morning:

Preheat over to 375 degrees. Sprinkle the baking soda and salt over the top of the dough, and work in, again being careful not to mix too much (we do not want to develop gluten for this!).

Sprinkle a work surface lightly with flour, and turn the dough onto this. Your dough should be slightly sticky, but easy to roll out--if it's too sticky, add more flour. Roll into a circle, or square, whichever you like, keeping it about a half-inch thick. Cut into shape and size of your liking--I did a circle with eight wedges. Just remember your cooking time may differ from mine if you do it differently.

Place on a parchment covered baking sheet (or a Silpat mat, if you have it, which I need to buy, so I quit wasting parchment paper), giving them as much space as possible. Brush with the heavy cream and sprinkle with the Turbinado sugar.

Bake for about 20 minutes or until golden brown where the scones touch the pan. Enjoy!

Mt. Hood inner-tubing

2009-12-31T22:48:00.000-08:00

For over a month now, I have been dead set on heading to Mt. Hood to try out their inner-tube hills and rope tow. Normally I wouldn't be so lazy and insistent on having a rope tow, but with a two- and four-year-old, it made a lot more sense. I'm all about making life with small children easier (well...within reason....).

We'd finally settled on going New Year's Eve, and so headed out at 11:30 am this morning--only a half-hour behind schedule, which is miraculous for an outing of this magnitude for us! Chris had had to get up pretty early (for him) to buy chains, get an oil change and find waterproof mittens. I...was left to pack and not forget very important items (mittens? snacks? lots of snack? water bottles? cars? extra changes of everything? etc.)

And, before we left, probably around 10:30, I double-checked the Ski Bowl website--six inches of new snow and currently snowing, no road closures only 5 of 65 ski runs closed--good to go.

Hahahaha...fate, why did you hate us today? It rained, the entire way--which means that the roads were mostly fine (well, if you care for water spraying up from every passing car and standing water, but whatever, standard for where we live this time of year). And it was still raining when we finally found the tube hills.

Ok, no big deal, we're used to rain, it didn't seem to be affecting the snow too much. Then we find out, after we head in, drop $50 on tickets and parking passes, that oh, the rope tow is broken today! They were generous enough to take $1 off our tickets--was that ok? And there was a $3 coupon for a return trip in January.

SERIOUSLY?!!? I checked your website! $1 off?!?! Grrrrrr.....

But I am too nice. Chris would have pitched a fit, had I permitted, but at that point, I was thinking, no, we've driven ninety minutes, the kids have been so excited for this--we'll just hoof it up and down the hill.

Oh, but wait. The little one? Too little. Only ages three and up allowed on the tube hills. There's a little hill at the foot of the big hill that you can let him slide down. Too bad our website didn't say that either.

Have fun!

So Chris took Danny up (and down) twice. Isaac and I played on the little hill. Then I took Danny up twice (oh my god, I was seeing stars on the second trip up, when I agreed to pull him--so glad I hadn't gone to the gym yesterday), while Chris played with Isaac on the little hill.

At this point, everyone was getting a bit...uh...frustrated? It was raining hard. And cold, of course. So we told the kids about the "kid zone" area, and they got excited to play in it, and Chris and I got excited to chug a beer and go down the hill a couple times alone (wait...I think it was only me that was excited for that).

The kid zone? Retarded. Seriously lame. And here I'd been under the impression that for $9 (or free with our purchased tubing tickets), there would be an adult employee in there supervising, but NO, we needed to stay. Scratch that beer.

So Chris carried Isaac back down the hill. Danny and I tubed down. And went to the car. A grand total of five runs down the hill for Danny.

We had brought the kids' new bear sleds (a present from Santa), so they tried those out quickly, and then came the changing. Oh, the changing. Oh, the wetness.

I am totally being cranky about all this, but both boys loved the tubing they did get to do, and despite the backdraws, we all did manage to enjoy the family time together. And Chris majorly impressed me with his snow driving (while the roads weren't bad, the parking lots were awful, full of huge chunks of ice and tons of snow and water)--we didn't even have to use the chains.

We didn't take many pictures--it was raining too much for me to risk taking the camera to the hill, but here are a few taken under shelter of the trunk :)

Isaac, crying, while I tried to get his soaking wet shoes and socks off.

Snow!

2009-12-31T22:12:00.000-08:00

We finally had a our first snowfall, on Tuesday afternoon. It was kind of crazy to think that last year at this time, we'd already had about 16 inches. Danny was so so so excited--we were still in "quiet time", as Isaac was asleep, and Danny immediately grabbed his coat and mittens and headed outside, and stayed out there for over an hour!

Can you tell he's excited?

Eating snow off the raspberry beds. This kid loves to eat snow.

I think he was trying to make snowballs and throw them for Zeus.

Isaac, ready to head out! He was more excited than he looked...

It took Isaac awhile to venture out from under the porch.

Then they rode bikes, of course.

Isaac only managed to stay out for about 20 minutes. He had yanked his mittens off and was standing at the end of the deck, screaming about being cold. Apparently the connection between warmth and clothing has not been quite reached!

But, while I was getting dinner ready, we had to run back out because the snowflakes were, I kid not, two inches in diameter! It was too exciting. So we caught snowflakes for a few more minutes and then came back in again.

Ei hackele

2009-12-29T13:48:00.000-08:00

This is essentially an egg salad, but way better than the stuff I normally make. Ei is German for "egg", and the "hackele" part refers to something being "chopped very small." (Chris, or Karin, correct me if I didn't convey that quite right...)

Christmas morning, after opening gifts and stockings, I had planned to make pancakes, but somehow Chris came up with this dish and wanted it. So...I made it. His Grandma (wait, Oma!) used to make this for him and apparently together, Chris and I came up with a pretty close approximation.

I don't measure, so I can't give exact measurements here. Mainly, add everything to taste! If you use my approximations, definitely start on the lower end and add as needed!

For our family, here's what I used (there were no leftovers, and I probably could have eaten another!):

7 eggs (4 were medium, 3 were large), barely hardboiled--with a little bit of runniness to the yoke
extra-virgin olive oil--2-3 Tbsp
white wine vinegar--1-2 Tbsp
salt and pepper, to taste
finely chopped parsley--about 2 Tbsp
finely chopped green onion--half of one
pinch of nutmeg

Chris' grandma actually used chives where I used parsley and green onion, so if you have those, by all means use them!

I mashed up the eggs with a fork, very well (this is supposed to almost be a paste-like consistency, but that kind of grossed me out, so I kept it a little chunkier). Add everything else and your done!

In Germany, they eat this open faced on toast (which we did Christmas morning), but I think I'll also be making this in lieu of the mayo-cloaked egg salad sandwiches the kids and I sometimes eat. Much healthier, much tastier!

Bacon wrapped persimmon wedges

2009-12-29T13:30:00.000-08:00

Or as Danny likes to call them, "persimmimins."

I had found this idea in one of my Rachael Ray magazines, in the corner of a page, almost hidden. I've been wanting to make them for quite awhile and even saved two of my Fuyu persimmons (the firm variety) for it.

By the way, the Fuyu persimmons keep for a very long time. These two were just barely starting to soften, and I think I've had them, at room temperature, for over a month (don't be too grossed out, I did keep checking on them!).

I'd cut the persimmons into eighths, cut each bacon strip in half and after wrapping, placed them seam-side down on my baking tray. I use a cooling rack (like for cakes or cookies) on top of a rimmed baking sheet, so the grease can drip down. Then I baked them at 425 degrees for 14 minutes (check on them after 12 minutes, though).

Yum! We ate these with scrambled eggs (cooked in some bacon grease, the best way to do it) and toast, for breakfast this morning. They were a hit--I'm just sad that they're all gone. Hopefully persimmons are still around...

Merry Christmas!

2009-12-26T00:50:00.000-08:00

I think I must have made someone, somewhere very happy along the lines, because at 27 years old, I'm pretty sure I just had the very best Christmas of my life--and that's saying something, because my Christmases have regularly been very good.

Merry Christmas and thank you to my beautiful little babies and spectacular husband--I love you all more than I can possibly say :)

Mmm...homemade marshmallows...

What?! So the air is drier in eastern Washington. It leads to static.

Poor Isaac, in Walla Walla last weekend!

He's been in a sugar/present coma for over a week now. Poor little Christmas zombie :)

Ava and Danny, last weekend, relaxing after a hard day of eating, running in the park, and watching cartoons. Notice Zeus in the background...

Little old man, in his rocking chair by the fire!

It has to be counted as a miracle when two 2-year-olds, a 3-year-old and a 4-year-old ALL sit still and look cute for a picture...

Think they're excited?! Opening presents from Great-grandma and Great-papa, at Brenda and Tom's.

Grandma is just as excited though :) Maybe even more excited.

Zellie is super-stoked to be the proud owner of the Cinderella soundtrack!

The aftermath. I...don't have words for this right now! At least my Grandma has toned it down. That's right, this is minimal compared to what living rooms looked like during my childhood.

The boys, wrapping presents for Zeus, Chuck and Oscar. Funny, quick story: for the second time, I came out of Petco with an extra toy in my bag. Paid for, but definitely not needed, especially when it's a $10 rubber squeaky one. That's what I get for letting them both push around those little carts.

And yes, the animals unwrap their own presents.

The night of the 23rd. In keeping with part of Chris' family traditions, we open all presents, except for what Santa brings, of course (my family tradition that I won't let go!), on Christmas Eve, after dinner.

Opening presents from Nana on Christmas Eve. Brenda, Tom and Zellie were there, too, but I was naughty and didn't take many pictures. But, oooohhh, the food, let me digress from pics for a second: Brenda made Tammy's black bean salsa, smoked salmon dip and little smoky crescent rolls; Mom made crab quiche and spanakopita; I made grandma's chicken wings, shrimp/wasabi/cream cheese/crackers, and blackened chicken pizza. We didn't even eat half of it, but it was wonderful to cook with Mom and Brenda again, and I have been eating leftovers all day today. And will be still tomorrow. Love it. For the record, I ate Brenda's leftovers the fastest :)

Danny's new fishing pole! I think I may harass Chris to do a post on their first fishing trip (in the works--Chris has a 5-day stretch of work, so it'll be a week or so, poor Noodle!).

Opening Up, the Disney movie. I don't normally like to buy movies, as I try to not watch much TV with the kids--but they loved this movie, and so did I. Isaac talks about Kevin, Dug, and Russell all the time. I think we'll be watching it tomorrow, at some point.

Inundated with new books! Yes! These two happen to be from Chris' grandparents, Hella and Edelhard,, in Germany. I think I may start up the Rosetta stone program again, just so I can read these myself. These two books are apparently Dr. Seuss-ish popular in Germany (though a bit more macabre...). The books also came with CD's, which was perfect, b/c the boys got a CD player from my Grandma.

Isaac, forever eating chocolate. This bar came from the Germany package, and Isaac went straight for it. This morning (the 25th), we hadn't heard from Isaac for awhile--Chris found him under Danny's bed, with a bogarted Toblerone bar. The kid screamed, an I-cracked-my-skull type of scream, when Chris took it from him.

Proof that Chris was there. Plus it's kinda funny that Danny has his head in his new fishing net. Rest assured, it's now out in the garage, with his tackle box.

Santa came! Christmas morning. The bear things are pseudo-sleds. When I encouraged Danny to ask Santa for a sled, I had no idea how expensive and hard to find real sleds and toboggans are...

...but they like 'em. Gotta love a 2- and 4-year-old for being so forgiving :)

Chris and Isaac, jamming on the harmonica.

Somebody's doggy was being very naughty on Christmas morning...

Oscar has, thus far, used the sleds as much as Danny and Isaac.

Danny helping me make cinnamon rolls this afternoon, for Chris to take to work. I feel kinda bad, I heard about someone making cinnamon rolls and taking them to their local firehouse, for the on-call firemen, and said aloud how I should do that, and Chris replied, "Um, how about your local ER?" Oh, yeah. They have families that they have to ditch on Christmas, too. Man I'm a jerk. So we made cinnamon rolls for Chris to take to work, instead, complete with a Santa and tree drawing by Danny.

Danny has been playing Lego's practically non-stop. Definitely one plastic toy that I can get behind. Please don't let me down Lego! I guess that seizure-inducing trip to Toys R'Us was worth it.

And my day ended with a late night phone call from Tracey. A perfect way to end Christmas, drinking wine with my BFF (excuse the Paris Hilton-speak), as she turns 28.

I hope every Christmas turns out like this :)

Christmas shopping

2009-12-17T22:01:00.000-08:00

I figured I better post something, just so the few people who read this will keep reading :) Grandma, Christa, and Courtney, that's you!

Of course things have been crazy, but not in a bad way. We're having fun, the kids are enjoying the Christmas season, my Christmas shopping is done...just some more baking and candy making, and lots and lots of family, and then the big day! I still look forward to Christmas just as much as I did when I was a kid. I may have a hard time sleeping Christmas Eve!

We had an unplanned weekend in Long Beach, due to a close family friend dying. Though the reason we made the trip was sad, it was a nice visit; we hadn't been down to visit Mom and Great-grandma and Papa for quite awhile and it happened to be a beautiful weekend down there (hehe, there was freezing rain and nasty ice at home!). So...the nice visiting with family made the trip better. Oh, and let's not forget Isaac's major, non-diaper blowout while eating out. I'll leave out the details; it's enough to know that he was not wearing a diaper, as he's using the toilet very well now. Use your imagination.

My grandparents were fantastic enough to come up and babysit the kids all Tuesday afternoon so that Chris and I could head to Portland for some Christmas shopping. Of course our first stop was Powells, one of my favorite places in the world. Amazingly, I made it out without a single book for myself! The very first time I've managed to do that, in fact. Then again, I had to have a little more self-control with all the books we bought for the kids; I just can't help it when I find things like Eric Carle's Treasury of Classic Stories for Children for $6.50; Olivia Forms a Band and Zen Shorts for $7.99 each (in hardback! brand spankin' new!). I had only gone in for A Child's Garden of Verses (which I also found used, even in the edition illustrated by Brian Wildsmith that I'd wanted) and Richard Scarry's Best Storybook Ever (not used, but only $15). I love Powells.

Both Chris and I really wanted sushi. We are not very adventurous with our sushi eating, usually. We like Eastland Sushi A LOT, and don't stray from it very often. However, there was a Sushi Land right up the street from Powells, with a sweet happy hour to boot, so we went. Which is unfortunate, because it was mediocre at best, and the Deschutes Brewery is right there, too, and I love their beer. And there were probably some rockin' winter ales on special. At least we only spent $22...

And then, the best discovery of the night! I have been hell bent on finding Isaac some cool bongos, and spent a good half hour before we left, making Chris do google searches, and calling various Portland stores to locate reasonably priced, but realistic (ie- not plastic crap) kids bongos. And I found them at Rhythm Traders, on sale for $35. The people were extremely helpful and friendly, and they let Chris and I play with every bongo and drum we could get our hands on before they closed. They had TONS of cool kids percussion instruments and noise makers, I could have spent a lot more than we did. In addition to the bongos, we bought Isaac a thunder tube--I hope we don't regret that! I will definitely be returning to this store (hopefully with Tracey, my best friend and a drummer, who would be in heaven, who hopefully will be located in Portland by June-ish).

On the way home, I made a mistake. I decided that we'd bought too many presents that weren't "toy" enough (which I'd purposely avoided, but...a kid's gotta have something to play with after opening presents, right?), so I made Chris stop at Toys R' Us at Jantzen Beach to buy a small Lego set for Danny (his major present is a fishing pole and tackle box...not too fun on Christmas morning, eh?). I seriously thought I may have an anxiety attack or seizure in there. Shouldn't be surprising how many kids have ADD when those are the toys they're being bought. I kinda felt dirty when we left. It was amazing the amounts of plastic shit (really, there's no better word for it...sometimes swearing is necessary) in there. Bikes to plug into your TV? Because who needs to go outside? Really? Un-freaking-believable. I've told myself many times in the past that I wouldn't shop at Toys R' Us anymore (I've had some very bad exchange and customer service experiences), yet I keep going back. Ugh. That was the last time. Maybe by publicly declaring it, I'll stick to it this time :)

So...this is a totally disjointed, random blog, and I am supposed to be packing to go to Walla Walla tomorrow and finishing up the package to mail to Chris' family in Tucson and getting some presents wrapped and finishing laundry--not drinking wine and writing on the blog :)

Saint Nicholas Tag

2009-12-09T23:19:00.000-08:00

When Chris was growing up in Germany, they celebrated Saint Nicholas Tag on December 6th--tag in German is "day", and this is the feast day of Saint Nicholas. In Germany, and some other parts of Europe, kids set their shoes out the night before and wake up the morning of the 6th to find them filled with little goodies from Saint Nicholas.

It's hard for me to remember to incorporate new traditions like this, and Chris wasn't much help in remembering this year, and we completely forgot to put the boys shoes out the night before! Luckily, I remembered upon awakening in the morning, and, while the boys were still in bed with us, I woke Chris up and he snuck out and did the dirty work. The boys just think Daddy put their boots out for them, since we forgot before going to bed! Whoops...

Waiting for me to unlock the door...bah to forgetting to turn on the flash and Danny's blurry face!

Danny brings his stuff inside...

...while Isaac starts scarfing chocolate, with the door still open! (And it has been COLD!)

Still eating chocolate. And later threw multiple tantrums.

Give Danny a new Hot Wheels, and he's good for a week!

And just because it's cute, I have to put up a picture of Chuck and Zeus. Chuck has decided that Zeus' bed is a good place for him as well, and cuddles with him. You can tell Zeus hates it, but tolerates it :)

Compost!

2009-12-09T22:57:00.000-08:00

Last spring, I used a good portion of our tax return to fancy up the garden (well, a little, there's much more I want to do), and part of that included buying compost bins--plural, b/c the first we bought we weren't sure about (a big ball you can roll around to easily facilitate aeration) and then we found a display model at Costco for pretty cheap, so we were then the proud owners of TWO compost bins. And we actually produce enough food waste to fill them both. That's kind of gross.

Anyways...I was rewarded the other day with my first batch of compost!

There's actually still some egg shells in it, and a few leaf chunks left from my last addition about three weeks ago, but bin #2 is full and needed to start actively composting, which means that the ball bin needed to be emptied. And since the ball bin is now empty, I was able to roll it up to rest next to the deck, so I don't have to trek down to the garden in the cold and rain all winter.

I was so excited. I still am. I'm still amazed that our food turned into beautiful soil. It's so nuts. It's so amazing. It's things like this that make me love science and nature.

The compost is still sitting in a small pile in the garden, waiting to be distributed, but I cannot decide which plants to bestow with all of the wonderful nutrients. I probably need to make my mind up though, b/c I think we have some precipitation on the way, and I don't want all those nutrients just leaching into the soil in one spot.

This same day--I think it may have been Sunday--Chris willingly left a warm couch, with food and football, to finally put up the supports for my raspberry bed (which he also built for me, with aforementioned tax return). Isn't he a nice guy?! Then he took the kids back inside, put the leftover lasagna in the oven for lunch, and left me alone, in peace and quiet, in my garden, to play with my raspberries for an hour.

The raspberries look so unimpressive right now, but they actually yielded a fair amount of berries this summer and fall, considering I'd only planted them in early May (which was way late, I procrastinate in everything, gardening included). There are tons of suckers and I'm excited b/c I think they are going to be bee-yoo-ti-ful next summer and fall and I will have my own private organic raspberry supply. :)

Zoo lights

2009-12-05T15:04:00.000-08:00

Isaac doesn't look very comfortable, does he?!

Isaac on the zoo train. Poor little guy was cold, and very whiny, until we boarded the train, but riding the train seemed to cheer him right up!

Danny is "helping" post these pictures, and when he saw this one, he said, "Mama, but why do you have your hair sticking up in your mouth?" !!! I don't know, good question...

Danny under the dragon

Isaac hugging the tiger. He's still talking about this! Even big brother wouldn't do it, but Isaac didn't even hesitate.

Watching the tiger walk away: "BYE! BYE TIGER! BYE!!!!"

A sleeping ocelot. Danny and Isaac were really excited about the cute kitty.

We've been to zoo lights the last three years in a row. It wasn't exactly something I meant to make a tradition, but...looks like it is! I don't think Danny will let a Christmas pass from now on w/o us going at least once. The past two years I've gone solo--which I'm really proud of myself for!--and the boys have been so good, it'd be kind of hard to argue against taking them (though it was easier having a newborn and 1-year-old Isaac in a sling, tucked snugly in my coat, not insisting on seeing every sight and getting down and walking every three minutes! He was a little more fun this year, however!).

Here's to many more great zoo lights, and thanks to Great-Grandma for the fun zoo membership!!

I am so proud of my husband

2009-12-04T15:15:00.000-08:00

Because today I took the computer from him and found these tabs open: Chemicals in our food, and bodies; Concern over canned food; and BPA raised workers' risk of sexual dysfunction, study says.

He must have read something about BPA...

My email inbox has been flooded in the past week, from the Washington Toxics Coalition and Environmental Working Group, asking me to petition my state legislators about removal of BPA from products intended for small children, which of course I did.

But, uh, didn't I do this last year?

Yes. I thought this was all totally old news, but I guess not. Here was the email reply I received from my state senator:

Dear Michelle,
 
Thank you for your email in reference to HB1108 and

SB5282.  Last year there were two pieces of

legislation introduced and neither of them got

through the legislative process.  The House version

passed with a 76-21 vote.

Neither bills made it to the Senate floor for a vote.

Last year Senator did not have an opinion on the issue.
 
The bills will need to be reintroduced to be

considered again this session. The legislature

reconvenes on January 11, 2010.  We will keep an eye

on this during the upcoming session.
 
 
Tina Bodine, Legislative Assistant to
Senator Joseph Zarelli
18th Legislative District
360.786.7634      Fax 360.786.7524 
Senator Zarelli's Web Site http://www.leg.wa.gov/senate/zarelli
Bill Information http://www.leg.wa.gov/legislature

Hmmm....I know a certain senator who will most definitely NOT be getting a vote from me come his next re-election. No offense intended, Mom and Randall :)

Seriously though--I expected better from Washington State. We're usually one of the states that stay ahead of the curve in issues like this (yet another reason I will probably never leave the West Coast...unless I'm bound for Europe, that is). Maybe this year...

But, I am proud of my husband! He's often times a little skeptical of my stance on the whole natural/organic living stuff (though he didn't balk at my spending the money on Klean Kanteens, and did finally purchase a stainless steel Camelbak for himself). And when HE gets convinced, he's a talker, so other people end up hearing about it, and hopefully start to get a little interested and look into these things for themselves. (Chris, if you try to refute this point, I want you to remember last New Year's Eve, at Dr. What's-her-face's party, when you started going off about home birth, and all of a sudden, here I am the crazy hippie at the party full of your co-workers...embarrassing, yet see what I mean?!).

And to conclude, here's a link to the Washington Toxics Coalition page on BPA, so everyone else can email their state legislator (although, this is specific to Washington State, I believe): Tell legislators it's time to eliminate BPA!

When the kids get cranky...

2009-12-03T00:38:00.000-08:00

...I throw them outside.

Luckily today I decided to go out, too, because it was absolutely beautiful (but cold). And I got out there, and saw what a mess the yard was, and decided I should probably do something about it. Mother Nature starts cutting me some slack this time of year: my first chore, anytime I do yardwork, is poop duty (why didn't anyone tell me what I was getting into in regards to poop, with having two kids, a 75-lb dog in suburbia, and two cats? Why couldn't I figure it out myself?!), and cleaning up frozen dog poop is much better than...you can imagine. The rest of you curse frost, I love it. It also means that there are almost no fruit flies attacking me when I open the compost bin.

I'm glad to see winter coming!

Then the kids needed to swing. I don't think I liked swinging nearly as much as my kids do. They will swing any chance they get. They beg for it. They fight over swings when the number of kids outnumber the swings. They will do it all day long, if I let them. They squeal and scream and smile--so I try to indulge them regularly.

Raking was up next. A nice big pile, so that the kids could jump in it. They waited very patiently, smashing up the ice that had formed on their sandbox-turned-pond-because-nobody-covered-it-up-when-rain-started. I was hoping we'd find some frog eggs in it, but nothing so far.

I wish you could better see the look of anticipation on Danny's face! Just waiting for me to give him the go ahead (I made them wait while I got the camera).

Zeus is constantly bringing his tennis balls to the leaf piles, so that the kids will bury them. He loves it as much as they do, I think.

Danny burying Isaac

Run, Isaac, run!

And then, a miracle happened...

Isaac helped Danny up, with no prompting from me, and then Danny hugged Isaac, with no prompting from me! I think they may actually love each other!

And then another miracle lay awaiting us in the garden:

tons of broccoli still in the garden (not the phenomenon), which Danny and Isaac stood and ate for a good five minutes (there it is!). They have not been willing broccoli eaters all summer, but today, Danny proclaimed, "Mama, today is a day that Isaac and I could stay outside all day and eat broccoli and play." Alright, you do that! The broccoli had actually gotten much sweeter and more mild, I'm guessing due to the cold? It was a nice snack though, we cleaned off that plant that they're standing by. As a bonus, the cold has killed off the aphids and cabbage worms that were haunting our cruciform veggies.

After Danny's little nap today, while Isaac was still asleep, Danny helped me make our December calendar (even though we won't host preschool this month, Danny has been learning his numbers very rapidly, and loves posting the date each day), and then drew me a picture of Rudolph:

That Rudolph was even written by him (dictated by me, of course). I was so proud. He wouldn't let me hang it up without a lot of cajoling, because he wanted to surprise Daddy. After I took the picture, he went back and added a blue sky, a rainbow, and green grass "to feed Rudolph when he gets hungry." Ah, my smart, wonderful little preschooler, how quickly you learn and amaze me!

Let the holidays begin!

2009-12-03T00:02:00.000-08:00

We are on the ball this year! Last night (the 1st of December!) we got our Christmas tree and got it all decorated.

I guess we'd really be on the ball if it wouldn't have been almost 7 pm before we got home, with dinner still needing to be cooked; an almost 8' tree to contend with; ornaments and decorations to be found...but that's just how Chris and I roll, and you probably know this.

While I fixed dinner, Chris got the tree in, located the tree stand, sliced off the bottom of the tree and drilled a hole in it--I have no clue why he drilled the hole, I thought it better not to ask. I think he just wanted to play with some of the tools he rarely gets to use!

After dinner, we decorated! Well, just the tree, the rest of the house is still waiting its turn.

Danny actually helped this year! As you can see, we ended up with a lot of ornaments at the 2 1/2' level, around the entire circumference of the tree!

This Kermit the frog ornament was bought by my parents when I was small, because I loved Kermit so much! Apparently some things never lose their appeal, as there was a small fight over this ornament (how Isaac won I'm still puzzling over!).

Too bad Isaac didn't have pants on...I'm not really sure what happened to them.

Post-decorating. I love when the house looks like this at 9:30 pm, with both kids still awake. And notice who's relaxing on the couch...

I suppose it was equally tiring to watch...

Thanksgiving, round two

2009-12-02T23:34:00.000-08:00

Well, kind of...
Mom and Randall had done Thanksgiving with friends, and Brenda, Tom and Bean had gone up to see Tom's family; Mom, Brenda and I couldn't let a holiday go by without getting together to pig out and see each other, so we arranged to do a dinner on Saturday.

Mom got here nice and early (the boys were still in pj's!), so she could cook and we could visit. It was so nice, to have Mom here all day and not be in a hurry. The boys were of course very, very, VERY excited to have Nana here, not to mention ALL day! We watched some Food Network (just like old times!), discussed the merits of several recipes in my new cookbook (we didn't know what we were cooking--but we'd planned on winging it the day of, and seeing what sounded good), played with kids/dog/cats, drank lattes, and finally, did cook. Well, Mom did most of the cooking, I was more sous chef and just plain getting in the way! We had decided on Puebla chicken and potato stew, from the new cookbook (Gourmet Today); it had chorizo and chipotle peppers in adobo, and was served with queso fresco, avocado, sour cream and baked corn tortillas...it was delicious. Mom is such a good cook--she's the one who taught me everything I know! I can't think how many times I've called her to ask for culinary help. Then we'd made a chocolate cake for dessert; we did the cake and frosting with coconut oil (in place of butter, of course) and it was SO good. I just finished my extra piece :) Mom was evil and left her and Randall's extra pieces here!

Brenda, Tom and Bean came over a little before dinner; Brenda hadn't been feeling good, so she missed out on cooking with us. That was a bummer, we always like cooking together. Except poor Brenda can't drink with us while we cook now...;)

And now, some pictures:

Guess who got to lick the chocolate frosting beaters?

The sit and spin was the popular item to fight over this night :) Danny and Bean did a very good job with the sharing once we set a timer though.

Brenda and her new best friend, Oscar. I'm trying to convince her to adopt him! The offer still stands...

Danny and "Ribbity"

Danny's--and the rest of the family's--opinion on the outcome of the '09 Apple Cup. We still love you Cougs, even if you couldn't score a single point.

And now...on to Christmas.

A very thankful Thanksgiving

2009-11-27T22:30:00.000-08:00

I was hoping to get something posted last night, on actual Thanksgiving, but...didn't. We had gone up to Olympia, for dinner with both of my aunts on my Dad's side, all of their families (5 out of 7 of my grandma's grandchildren in one place!), my grandparents, plus a bunch of my aunt's husband's family...it was quite the gathering. I'd been very excited for it though and it was so wonderful to see so much of my extended family. Plus, Chris got to go, which is a rarity, so that made it extra special.

However...the drive home. Was. Not. Fun. It was raining (of course, kind of the way things go here). Here is a glimpse from the drive up (which Chris drove):

It was raining much harder on the way home, plus it was dark, there was lots of standing water, there was quite a bit of traffic...ugh. I don't like being the one in control of the vehicle driving 65 mph down I-5, containing everything that is the basis of what I am thankful for. And that is all I could think of the entire drive home. It was nerve wracking. I think I could have cried when I saw our exit.

Ok, I am slightly exaggerating--but only slightly. Next time, I will be taking the offer to sleep on any spare space and not set out for home at 7:45 pm, on a stormy night. Or, maybe I won't let Chris drink four glasses of wine so that HE can drive! (Although I really do think that whoever is with the strange family should be allowed to drink, y'know, just to make things more enjoyable!)

I am very glad that I wasn't aware how crappy the drive would be though; at least I got to have fun at dinner without it hanging over my head! I hadn't seen my cousins for a quite awhile and they're all getting so OLD! (I am the oldest, on both sides of the family, so it makes me feel old to see Siraj as a JUNIOR in college, and Jamal almost graduating high school, and Naseem almost driving, and Lizzie as such a pretty, mature, young woman). Don's nephew brought his three-year-old daughter, so there was even a new friend for Danny and Isaac.

Reema and Don cooked an excellent dinner (I think the other Michelle had quite a hand in several of the dishes, as well); Don even did cornbread stuffing, so I was in heaven. I think Chris was very happy to have a ham, too, alongside the turkey.

I don't know how they'll all feel about their pictures being on the blog, but since everyone is adults, and no one is engaged in any compromising behavior, I'm going to post some pictures. :) I will probably leave out Danny and Isaac's little friend though; I have some really cute pictures, but I don't want to post pics of other people's kids w/o their consent--I wish I would have thought to ask before we left. But then I feel like a bit of a dork: "Hey, can I put your pictures on my blog?!" Um, yeah...

A disclaimer before the pictures: Danny took many. He's gotten pretty good with the camera, and I thought he might be able to get more candid pics, as little and unobtrusive as he is, but I ended up with lots of pictures of the chandelier, some white flowers, and a vase full of Christmas balls, not to mention the angle (think a 3 foot person taking pictures vs. a 5 1/2 foot person taking them...). Maybe I'll hang on to the camera during the Christmas festivities.

Danny and Isaac chasing Bosco, Reema and Don's mini-schnauzer, around the dining room table. You can see the boys' little blurry heads on the opposite side of the table. They did this for the first hour we were there, then intermittently throughout the night.

The kitchen: Reema rooting around in the fridge; Don carving the ham; Chris pouring glass of wine #2. Josh, the other Michelle's boyfriend, is wayyyyyy in the background.

My cousin Lizzie and the boys. I can't sing Lizzie's praises enough, she is the most wonderful 13-year-old I've ever met. The boys love her, too...if only she lived closer and could babysit :)

Already taking pictures of himself!

Me, Liz and my grandma. Wait, she's Liz's grandma, too!

Josh and Siraj...and Bosco, of course! The boys (Reema's boys, that is) were up playing video games a good portion of the night, so I don't have many pictures of them, which is a bummer. Siraj looks so much like Dad, though you probably can't see it too well, here.

Great-grandma loading up the dessert plate, of course! The first thing she did when we got there (at 2 pm, mind you) was feed Danny a rice krispie treat.

Remember, Danny took the picture! It would actually be great if Jamal's head weren't chopped off. Michelle had the idea of taking the pictures on the stairs, "just like they do for prom!" So there were quite a few sets taken...

All the cousins...Grandma, you must be so proud :)

Hmmm...Grandma probably should stand in the front!

Uh-oh, what'd I miss?! Danny caught Chris in the act.

Happy thanksgiving! (You may see this on our Christmas card, if I manage to send them out this year, that is.) I hope everyone had a wonderful day with lots of friends and family and food! I would list everything I'm thankful for, but...I think the blog and pictures probably give you a pretty good hint!

Hellions--

2009-11-23T14:58:00.000-08:00

--a term of endearment (I think...!), frequently used by my dad when I was growing up to describe my sister, brother and I on days when mischief and mayhem ruled (which was probably most days in a house with 3 kids, each a year apart--my parents were insane, apparently).

My kids are hellions today.

It started last night, at 3:30 am, when I was awoken by the laundry room door opening and shutting. Danny was in there, looking in his muddy jeans' pocket for his police car. Really? At 3:30 am?

He came and got into bed with me and Isaac (why we have a king-size bed!). Isaac woke up and decided he needed water. I got up and found a water bottle. After getting back in bed, I realized the cat had been let into the house when the laundry room was opened, so I got back up and threw the cat out. Got back into bed only to realize Zeus had been trapped in Danny's room (he goes crazy when he's trapped--scratching and whining and I did briefly, very briefly, consider just leaving him to learn his lesson), so got back up and freed the dog.

Luckily they let me sleep until 8 am.

By 10 am, my coffee had been spilled twice (though admittedly, Chris spilled it the first time--he's a hellion, too, I guess); a bowl of Indian corn had been spilled beneath the dining room table; oatmeal was smeared all over the kitchen counter and Isaac's head and pajamas; there had been approximately five fights; Isaac was throwing everything he could get his hands on and alternately riding and hitting Zeus; Danny had smashed his mouth on the dining room table...

We'd been up for TWO hours!

I had given myself the go-ahead to skip the gym today, too, but after all this, I decided I'd rather be running and lifting weights! So at the last minute, the boys were Kid's Club bound and I got a blissful, sweaty hour to myself. It was so worth it.

And now, some pictures of the hellions on their new bikes, on a walk we took yesterday evening before dinner. There's a ton of construction a block away from us--a housing development AND a major road being torn up--and it had been begging me to take the kids for some good dirty play for a few weeks now, and I finally got around to it. Plus, when there are construction vehicles involved--Danny and Isaac need no more incentive!

Look at that balance!

Danny fell in this mud about two seconds after the picture was taken. He then tried to convince me to wipe his muddy seat and handlebar on my white coat...ha! Right, kiddo! A deep mud puddle did the trick.

Isaac, looking for the moon...

And man, are they getting fast on those bikes! I had to jog a couple times, but it's a nice change from the snail's pace we sometimes take :)

I love you, little hellions!

Lacto-fermented cranberry chutney

2009-11-19T14:42:00.000-08:00

My grandma gave me a ton of fresh cranberries about three weeks ago--my grandparents and my parents are former cranberry growers, so I guess you could say cranberries hold a special place in all of our hearts. I still miss the smell of harvest (um, but not getting home from school, putting on hip boots and having to go help!).

Anyways, I am bad and still had a stash of LAST year's cranberries in my freezer. I had purposely left some in the fridge, so that I'd get moving on them, instead of continuing to accumulate them...

I'm making cranberry sauce right now (part of tomorrow's snack for Thanksgiving week of preschool!), but there were way too many for just sauce. A friend had mentioned cranberry chutney to me, which got me thinking about fermented cranberry chutney.

What did I do before google?! It took a me a little while, but I found a thread in a Mothering forum (YES! Reason #149 why I love Mothering!), with a recipe for lacto-fermented cranberry chutney. I probably would have just done it myself, but I had a few bombs trying to adapt pickling recipes into fermented recipes this summer (watermelon rinds, yuck), and I hate wasting the ingredients. The woman who posted the recipe happens to live in Portland, too. Would it be creepy to try and contact her?!

Danny helped me make the chutney--if it involves the food processor, that kid will help with anything. You'd think pushing the "pulse" button on the Cuisinart delivered an IV shot of chocolate, the way he acts! But it's nice, I like him to be involved in the kitchen--I'm hoping my sons will be able to cook. Future daughters-in-law, you're welcome :)

For my family, who may think I'm weird with the fermenting stuff and not want to eat my food anymore, read what Sally Fallon has to say and eat up!

Lacto-fermented cranberry chutney

3 cups of cranberries
1/2 cup of nuts (pecans was suggested in the recipe I found, we used hazelnuts)
1/2 cup of rapadura
2 teaspoons of salt
1/2 cup of whey
1/2 cup of prune juice or other juice (I used apple juice)
1 teaspoon of cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon of cloves
juice from 1 orange
juice from 1 lemon
1/2 cup of raisins

Pulse all, except raisins, in food processor. Stir in raisins. Ferment 48 hours, then refrigerate.

Usually the fruit ferments are good for 1-2 months, I've found. I weighed mine down with a smaller jar, to keep the solids under the liquids. And--I totally forgot the raisins. Maybe I'll stir them in afterwards. Or maybe I'll just chalk it up as a good excuse to make more of this later on in winter!

And this is what the boys were doing, while I played with cranberries:

UPDATE! This is delicious. We will be making it again. Danny and Isaac both liked it, too :) I did let it ferment for a little longer than the recommended time--probably more like 60 hours. It just didn't taste tangy enough for me at the 48 hour mark, and probably could have gone even a full 3 days. Maybe next time...

My baby is not a baby anymore...

2009-11-19T09:02:00.000-08:00

I had to do a post about Isaac. He's been amazing me lately with way too many things to keep quiet! And as the baby, I feel like his accomplishments (maybe a big word for a two-year-old, but whatever, I'm his mom and I think he's amazing!) sometimes go unnoticed in big brother's shadows.

A little after Isaac's second birthday, I realized the poor kid did not know colors, whatsoever. Bad mommy. With Danny I'd been so good pointing out the "black cat", the "orange pumpkin", the "green tree"...you get the idea. Danny and I also used to read all the time. I mean, an hour a day type of reading, even more on some days. Of course we still read quite a bit, but not like that anymore. So I enlisted Danny to help me teach Isaac his colors--we read a lot of color books, I quit slacking on pointing out colors, and Danny continually quizzed him ("Isaac! What color is this truck? Isaac! What color is the chair? Isaac! Isaac!"). Isaac was recognizing colors within a week. I was amazed, and very proud, at how quick he picked it up. Quiz him next time you see him, it's fun :)

Isaac really really loves going to preschool with Danny. He gets left behind with Chris on most Tuesdays to accommodate the carpooling schedule and is always very upset to know Danny and I are going to school. Fridays aren't so tough, b/c I don't usually help and then he gets 1-on-1 time with Mama, though he's still sad to see Danny leave. Anyhow, he's really picking up letters and numbers. He sings parts of the alphabet ("Q, R, S" and "X, Y, Z" are his favorite parts--he sung throughout the grocery store the other day); he does funny counting to play hide and seek ("2, 4, 2, 4, Ready or not, here come!"; the number 18 is very popular with him, too...).

And let's talk about Tommy the cat. Dad bought Isaac this cat for Easter when Isaac was, oh, 8 or 9 months old. Isaac loved it when he was a baby--he'd suck on the tail in the car for quite awhile, it was a little gross to be honest! Anyway, Danny busted it out of the animal bin one day awhile back, with HIS cat that Mom bought for him, and named them both: Nikshi is Danny's black cat (no clue where the name came from); Tommy is Isaac's orange cat. Ever since, Isaac has been sleeping with Tommy, often times packing him around the house. There's usually a cement mixer in the crib, too; for some reason Isaac really likes cement mixers. He's lately started naming the different types of vehicles and construction equipment, no doubt influenced by big brother :)

One place he's not influenced by Danny is his interest in music and instruments. He's forever turning things into "drums" and runs around banging on them and saying, "Drum, drum, drum!" Danny will actually copy Isaac in this area! Bongos have made it onto my Christmas list for Isaac :) He loves to sing and dance, things Danny practically hated at this age. We can calm him down with the Itsty Bitsy Spider; turn on any type of music and get him to dance; he sings songs by himself; he likes library story time type stuff (Danny refused to participate, even from my lap!).

Ok, this is long...I probably shouldn't even post it, but I decided that a bonus to keeping this blog would be that we'll have something to look back at--almost a digital scrapbook, I guess. If you made it this far, you must love Isaac almost as much as I do :)

I love you my little Shooey, never quit amazing me!

Honey ginger muffins

2009-11-14T15:30:00.000-08:00

I got it into my head last night that muffins tasting like gingerbread would be great for breakfast this morning. Danny and Isaac agreed. After a bit of searching (googling "ginger muffins" did not get me the results I wanted, but "gingerbread muffins" did), I found this recipe and got really excited.

Until, for the SECOND time, I made the mistake of thinking I had molasses, when, in fact, I did not. There is a bottle of Karo dark corn syrup that keeps tricking me (which I could probably use in place, but yuck, I reserve corn syrup for only when necessary, like fudge or caramels...um, b/c those are necessary sometimes). Molasses is now on my grocery shopping list :)

I'd already started soaking my flour (you can read about why I soak flour here and here, if you're interested), so the show had to go on. I'd used honey instead of molasses in the gingerbread people, and it worked, so I subbed the honey in. I also used coconut oil instead of butter; replaced 1/4 c. of the water with whey (for the soaking); used 1/2 c. rapadura instead of sugar; and added a few grinds of pepper (I love the peppery-ness of gingerbread items, and when I was refilling my pepper grinder last and smelling it, I decided that the next time I made something like this, I'd try adding pepper--and it was good!). I think the recipe is now mine!

I think the original recipe would be delicious, but if you'd like to try mine (I think I know at least one person who will)....they were delicious, and of the 15, only 4 remain and they will not make it through the day. Well, bread baking is commencing, so the fresh bread MAY save them for the morning...we'll see.

Honey ginger muffins

Night before:

Whisk the dry ingredients,

2 3/4 cups soft white wheat flour
1 tablespoon plus 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
3 or 4 grinds of pepper
scant 1/2 cup of rapadura

Melt and whisk together, then whisk into dry ingredients,

1/2 cup of honey
1/2 cup of coconut oil

Add,

1/4 cup of whey (or just plain yogurt, or buttermilk, or kefir...)
water to bring the whey up to 1 1/3 cups

Mix all of this well, cover and leave on the counter overnight.

In the morning, whisk in 2 large eggs (or 3 small, which was all I had) and 1/2 teaspoon of salt. Sift in 2 1/2 teaspoons of baking soda, whisk one final time, fill muffin tins, sprinkle a tiny bit of rapadura on top and bake at 375 for about 20 min. I baked mine for 12 min, then rotated and did another 10 min, and I think they could have come out a minute earlier.

I didn't do the glaze, either; too much work in the morning, plus I try to save powdered sugar for frosting, not breakfast!

I'm also trying french bread for the first time today. I can't decide which is better: the heat of summer and NOT turning on the oven, or the cold of late autumn/winter and having the oven on all day, making the kitchen all warm and yummy smelling...

Persimmons

2009-11-13T17:52:00.000-08:00

I love buying weird food that I don't know how to use.

My parents did this as much as possible when I was young (though living in a town of 1000 is slightly limiting), and through my grandfather's cooking, I was always being exposed to different stuff. Now that I have kids of my own, I want to make sure that they grow up appreciating a variety of foods, from different cultures.

Plus--it's fun for me. I like to think of this as stay-at-home-mom continuing education. A google search always yields recipes I can't wait to try. Most of the odd stuff I buy comes from Azure: parsnips; dulse (seaweed flakes); adzuki beans; millet; plum vinegar; and now, when I saw persimmons last week, I figured, "Why not?"

And now, I have to figure out what to do with them. They're sitting in the middle of the kitchen island, lest I forget about them, stashed away somewhere. Every time he sees them, Danny asks me, "Mommy, can we eat the persimmons yet?"

No, we can't. Azure sent me Hachiya persimmons, which fall under the "soft-ripe, astringent" persimmon label; there are also "firm-ripe, non-astringent" varieties. We have to wait until the persimmons feel "like a water balloon" before they're ripe, and therefore not nasty tasting. The other kind can be eaten just like an apple.

All the recipes I've found for the Hachiya persimmons are mainly for baking, which is ok with me! I did see in a few places that some people like to eat the liquidy-pulp inside the skin, or freeze it as a sort of sorbet; we'll probably do that with one, just to get the full on, unadulterated persimmon flavor! The others...I have plans. The James Beard's Amazing Persimmon Bread and Persimmon Oatmeal Cookies are at the top of the list.

Now to wait for the ripening. I will be updating with how they turn out!

As a bonus, you can predict your winter with persimmon seeds!

The one billy goat gruff

2009-11-11T14:08:00.000-08:00

Danny and Isaac have NEVER heard the story of the Three Billy Goats Gruff (which is unfortunate--I really want to find a nice book that has stories like this in it).

Yet the other night, while I made dinner, they tore the couch apart and totally re-enacted the story! Danny made a couch cushion "bridge" between couch and ottoman, which Isaac repeatedly crawled under. I came to see what was going on when I heard Danny saying, "No little babies under my bridge!! I eat little babies who go under my bridge!!", and Isaac cracking up and crawling/running away.

Hmmm...Danny's even making a bit of a troll face in that one picture.

Uh-oh, and now Daddy is going to be mad that they were jumping all over the couch. Unfortunately, necessity sometimes trumps house rules (like when dinner is going and the kids are clinging to me and whining, and Daddy is getting ready for work [in peace!] so I suggest, "Go make couch forts!!" Yes, necessity...)

Homemade apricot scrub

2009-11-11T13:57:00.000-08:00

Ever since I can remember, growing up, there was always a tube or jar of St. Ives Apricot Scrub residing in our shower. My mom used the stuff all the time, and probably around age 11 or 12, I started caring about my skin and was thus inducted into the cult worship of apricot scrub. And it has been residing in MY shower ever since, in its various incarnations.

Until...about a year ago. When I really started getting crazy about the whole minimal chemicals, minimally processed, all natural, organic-as-much-as-possible life. My dear St. Ives Apricot Scrub went on the chopping block. According to the Skin Deep Cosmetics Safety Database, the St. Ives Apricot Scrub products had scores ranging from 7 to 10 (on a scale of 10, with 0 being completely innocuous, so far as we know, and 10 being pretty-much-guaranteed-to-give-you-cancer/allergies/ADHD/asthma/autoimmune disorders....you get the point). I was slightly alarmed.

The reasons for the high scores? Fragrance and methyl-paraben. According to the Environmental Working Group (EWG; they're responsible for the Skin Deep Database) there is a lot of evidence that methyl-paraben effects the endocrine system, as one of those wonderful estrogen mimickers (there's a whole slew of chemicals like this...BPA and phthalates also come to mind). Which also means it's being implicated in estrogen stimulated cancers. Parabens are also known to be irritating and cause skin allergies. Methyl-paraben has been banned as a use in fragrances in the EU (but it's because it can cause "skin depigmenting" in some individuals, not b/c of hormone-disrupting effects or cancer). You can see more information on methyl-paraben here.

Fragrance is kind of a confusing one. I mean, it's pretty obvious what it's used for in products, but why is it bad? Because the FDA has allowed companies this catch-all term for proprietary purposes. Gotta love the good ole' FDA. So basically, a company can put anything into it's "fragrance" and they don't have to disclose it to the consumers. I can see where the FDA was trying to protect property rights here, but...really? All sorts of nasty chemicals show up in "fragrance", including the aforementioned parabens and phthalates. You gotta wonder if some of these companies aren't dumping the hazardous chemicals into their "fragrance", just to bypass the labeling--or is that just me being crazy?!

So on closer inspection, my beloved St. Ives was, uh, not working for me anymore, to say the least. I didn't even mention the sodium laureth sulfate, the PEG-100 Stearate or the triethanolamine, b/c the fragrance and parabens were enough to convince me. I just don't believe that we need all of that crap in our skin care products to make our skin look good.

At first, I switched to a "natural" apricot scrub that I found through my beloved Azure. This one was by a company called Earth Science; I initially bought it b/c I could find NO facial scrubs, easily available to me, that did not contain fragrance. This one at least contained no parabens or sodium laureth sulfate and only scored a 5 on the Skin Deep Database (this is still considered a "moderate hazard" though), again mainly b/c of the fragrance. But, they seemed a more truthworthy company, and the label says "fragrance oils" and it was the last listed ingredient...so I figured it would do, until I could find better.

And then life caught up with me and I switched my all-natural bent to more of our food and the apricot scrub got lost in the shuffle, until now. And I am again purging my skin care and cosmetics, b/c the food is under control, for the time being.

So I am sick of paying money for ingredients I don't know (or trust). This was the most expensive item in my shower, at $5.90 for 4 oz. It was amazing, when I started paring down the chemicals, how the products became cheaper...

I have embarked on a quest to find the perfect homemade scrub though! It's one of my favorite products, and I think exfoliating is very important--I'd like to look 27 for awhile!

The first "recipe" up was a very simple one that I found in a Reader's Digest book I bought at Fred Meyer's about a year ago. The entire book is comprised of stuff you can make at home, rather than buy. It ranges from Oreo's and pizza crust, to facial scrub and lotion, to bathroom cleaner.

The facial scrub: 2 tsp of finely ground oatmeal + 1 tsp of baking soda. Mix with some water when ready to use. I made up a quadruple batch to store in the shower; I'm not into making fresh stuff for every shower by any means.

And the verdict, after four uses? It definitely makes my skin feel nice (I think even softer than either apricot scrub), but it's very messy to apply and doesn't stick to my face very well. And it smells like oatmeal, which I don't mind too much, but other people might! I wouldn't mind something with a little more grit either, like the ground up nutshells commonly used in the commercially available apricot scrubs. (I have found ground nutshells available through Mt. Rose Herbs, too, so I will be looking for a recipe that incorporates these.)

On a side note: I made a wonderful discovery a few days before I made my oatmeal scrub, that definitely made the job easier. Most blenders (including my cheap Oster), will work with a Mason jar instead of your huge blender top. So you just screw your blade and gasket on like you would to the blender base, and voila! a tiny little jar to grind tiny amounts! Plus, it's already in a storage jar! My blender base works with wide-mouth half-pint jars and the normal mouth pint jars. I'm almost kinda ticked I have a separate coffee grinder now :)

Even on a bad day...

2009-11-09T16:50:00.000-08:00

...my children make me smile :)

On the way inside, from an errand, Danny and I were discussing the mold growing on our pumpkins. One pumpkin is a cat, and I commented, "The kitty has fur growing on the inside!"

Danny said, "Wait, the fur is supposed to be on the OUTside!"

And just now, Danny is upset with me, b/c I couldn't change the handlebars on his bike like I'd promised--they're just too hard for me to peel off. I told him he'd have to wait for Daddy to do it, so he's been sitting in the kitchen, sulking. I told Isaac that Danny was sad and that he should get him his favorite toy to cheer him up. Lo and behold, Isaac returns seconds later, with a squishy frog Danny had received for his birthday. And then he went and got this shake and go car (also a birthday present) that Danny also loves. These really are two of Danny's favorite toys right now, and it's amazing that Isaac is so observant!

And now Danny is happier. Way to go, baby brother!

Papa-Grandmas

2009-11-09T13:54:00.000-08:00

At the grocery store the other day, Danny saw the huge display of pomegranates and begged me to buy some. They were 2 for $3 (this was at Safeway), and since they'd been $3 apiece at Fred Meyer's, I complied. Plus I was impressed he even remembered what they were.

After his quiet time, while Isaac was still asleep, Danny and I cracked them open and got all the good stuff out. Danny ate every.single.seed that he removed...guess he really likes them!

Now we've been eating them for a couple days, and every time I pull them out of the fridge, the conversation goes something like this:

Danny: "Yay, pomegwanates!!!"

Isaac (10 times louder, and clapping): "Ayyyyyyyyy, papa gwandmas!!!!"

Danny: "No, Isaac, not 'papa gwandmas'; say pomma. gwanate."

Isaac: "Papa. Gwammas."

Danny: "No, no, Mama, Isaac can't say it right. Isaac, say POMMA. GWANATE."

And so on and so forth.

I love their conversations. I love that now they have them without any prompting or encouraging from me.

Family fun day: block foam recycling!

2009-11-09T13:43:00.001-08:00

Ok, weird, but we had a nice day yesterday, and it was centered around going into Vancouver to recycle a TON of block styrofoam that I'd insisted on keeping for such purposes, instead of throwing it in the trash. I wish I would have taken a picture of the collection: it was occupying a good 4' x 6' space in our garage (maybe bigger), and stacked about 4' high. At least it was there, and not in a landfill though.

If you'd like info: Clark Co. Solid Waste Calendar of Events. They do the recycling events once a month.

Chris woke up early to come with us; we got the car loaded with the foam while the kids played in the driveway. I promised them a stop at a park for complying with the drive. It was raining, hard, when we got to the collection area--I felt so bad for all those old people out, volunteering--that's some dedication to recycling.

We went to Marshal Park, which was right there, and it was still pouring; I assured a hesitant Chris they'd only play for like, 5 minutes before the rain got to them. But nooooooo...they wanted to stay out, even though they were soaking, Isaac didn't even have rain boots, Danny was wearing a fleece coat with next to no hood...when they are properly attired, at home, it is a battle to get them to go out and play in the rain!

We eventually drug them away with a promise of hot cocoa (which I was more than happy to give, so that I could have egg nog latte #2 of the season).

Gingerbread friends...and cars, and motorcycles

2009-11-06T14:38:00.000-08:00

I went to Costco on Tuesday, just for dog food, and came out with the dog food, a bottle of wine, two types of cheese, and Gingerbread Friends. I can't resist her books. I can't resist Costco's ploys, either, apparently.

We read it before naps that day, and of course it led to Danny wanting to make his own gingerbread baby and friends. We got the dough made that afternoon, while Isaac was still napping, but the baking of the cookies got postponed until Wednesday.

Danny got to use his new rolling pin and cookie cutters that he'd received for his birthday. Isaac actually used a rolling pin correctly! And resisted eating all the dough. I was so proud of my baby :)

The cookies were great, sorry we can't share over the computer :( You'll just have to console yourself with some pictures!

And here they are, enjoying the finished product:

Nana was in town and stopped by, later in the day, and got to sample some of our goods. And then she took some to Brenda, Tom and Bean for us, so I guess they did get dispersed a little.

Poor Mom got mauled, I couldn't get a single picture of the boys holding still! They were very excited to see her, and show off their new bikes and skills, and jump all over her.

Picassoodle

2009-11-06T14:21:00.000-08:00

For Danny's birthday party we bought this little cardboard house that is completely undecorated, so the kids could paint it at the party.

Unfortunately, it rained the day after the party and the house was in sad shape out on the deck.

It was raining all morning, and our house was somewhat picked up, so I decided to resurrect the cardboard house (we did pay $20 for the dam thing), let it dry a little inside, and have the boys redecorate it. And it kept them occupied for a almost an hour, though I did have some marker to clean off the walls and floor, but this is what Magic Erasers are for.

Danny drew himself and Isaac, anatomically correct even, and then a cow next to them. The cow is the upper left picture (with 4 legs, even); Danny is to the right of the cow; and Isaac is down below.

He's just begun drawing actual pictures that resemble actual things, so this is exciting, though I'm a little surprised (and can't quit laughing) over the fact that he's drawing genitalia!

After I oohed and aahhed over this picture, he told me, "But wait, Mama, now I'm going to draw something really cool!"

And proceeded to draw a whole array of fire trucks, ambulances, Life Flight helicopters, and fire rescue vehicles, with a single firefighter thrown in.

He was very proud of his artwork!

Now while Danny was working diligently, you can take a peek at what Isaac was doing:

That's right, eating markers and crawling in and out, in and out. Mischief and mayhem as usual, for the little Shooey. He only drew on the wall once though, and on the floor accidentally, so I'd say we're improving :)

What a nice, quiet morning! (Oh geez, and then I add this last picture, and here's Isaac trying to dismantle the house!)

Good eats!

2009-11-06T13:53:00.000-08:00

My kitchen adventures have been yielding some impressive results lately! I love it when that happens--too often I come up with concoctions that only I like and the leftovers sit in the fridge and don't get eaten. Sometimes even I don't like what I come up :) But I get bored so easily, cooking the same thing over and over, so experimentation keeps me interested in, and enjoying, the cooking process--much to Chris's chagrin!

Tuesday night was definitely one of my successes, though: squash and sausage pasta sauce over gnocchi. Chris went back for seconds and Mom wanted to know how I made it--that means it was good!

I had a roasted buttercup squash (from our CSA, I have no clue where to find it otherwise, but acorn, delicata or pumpkin will make good subs) leftover from Halloween--apparently the kids had no room for squash, what with grilled cheese and cocoa in front of them.

I had heard (or read) Rachael Ray talking about using cooked veggies as a pasta sauce--she'd done cauliflower, which I still have yet to try--so I decided that the squash could work as such. Monday afternoon, Danny and I pureed the squash in the food processor, using whole milk and a little bit of chicken broth to thin it to a sauce-like consistency. We added some fresh sage, nutmeg and of course, salt and pepper. Normally, I probably would have just let that be the sauce, but Chris was going to be home and he isn't too fond of my vegetarian meals. So I needed meat.

Alas, the dinner didn't get made Monday night b/c of picking Chuck up at the vet late, and my poor planning--we had Annie's mac and cheese and fish sticks that night, which is probably Chris and the kids' favorite dinner. Why do I bother?!

And as luck would have it, at the gym Tuesday morning, Rachael Ray was on (apparently she's really influencing my cooking right now!), and making a lasagna from a pumpkin sauce, coupled with Italian sweet sausage. I didn't have Italian sweet sausage at home, but I do have tons and tons and tons of ground beef, so I decided I'd season that with some fennel seed and it would be close enough to sausage. Because, you may have discerned from above, this family doesn't have nearly sensitive enough palates to discern beef from pork. :) So I sauteed up my beef with the seasonings, and then simply dumped my already made squash sauce over the top and let it simmer while I dealt with what went underneath the sauce...

And, b/c I have to make life as hard as possible for myself, I didn't want regular old pasta, either. We'd eaten too much of it lately. Gnocchi, which is an Italian potato pasta, came to mind. Danny was excited to help me out again, and I have to say, it's great having such an enthusiastic little kitchen helper. He's even washing dishes for me now! The gnocchi was super easy to make though, and very kid-helper friendly. Danny was very happy to be eating the "milky", as he called them, that he'd helped to make.

If only he would have been so enthusiastic about the spinach I served on the side!

Here's the finished product, but disclaimer, the picture doesn't do it justice. I think I've found a new respect for all of the cooking blogs out there, with all of their pretty pictures. I have no clue how to make my food look pretty!

An 'F' in pet ownership

2009-11-03T14:17:00.000-08:00

Ah, our poor animals.

About a month ago, Chuck--the cat we ALL love, even Chris--came home with a small hard lump on his side. I made Chris check it; he said that it wasn't fluid filled and we could just keep on eye on it. So we did. And it got smaller and disappeared.

Then, Saturday, as I mentioned in the Halloween post, I was petting Chuck up in Danny's bed (he loves to sleep with Danny) and the lump was back and very big. I brought him out to the living room to keep an eye on him for awhile and decided that he most definitely was not feeling good: wouldn't eat breakfast, was obviously in pain, very lethargic. Chris checked it again, declared it a fluid filled abscess and suggested that if Chuck were to live, we should get him to the vet.

Maybe I'll change our grade to a 'C', b/c at least we kept an eye on it and rushed him to the vet.

Luckily, our vet clinic was open (ER vets are not fun, or cheap, we know this from Zeus) and they squeezed him in. One of the reasons why I am still driving down to Salmon Creek instead of finding a new vet here. Plus, the visit came in actually under their estimate, and was pretty reasonable.

Poor guy had a raging fever and was dehydrated, so they admitted him to drain the abscess and then kept him until Monday evening to make sure the infection cleared up. I was very excited to find out there is now a broad-spectrum antibiotic for cats that requires ONE injection and lasts for 10-14 days. No shoving pills down his throat!

And I had to share a picture, b/c he looks hilarious with his cone head thing on. We've been taking it off to allow him to scratch and lick non-open-wound areas, but he goes right back to licking the abscess as soon as we turn our heads.

You can see in the picture, he's waiting at the door to be let out, but he's supposed to be inside for 10-14 days. We'll see how long that lasts.

Ok, now I sound like a crazy cat lady, but we were all fairly concerned for poor, sick, Chuck and babying him has taken up a substantial amount of our time.

Zeus, Oscar and Biscotti and more neglected than ever. Chuck better sleep with one eye open...

Countdown to turkey day!

2009-11-02T22:14:00.000-08:00

I totally pirated this idea from a friend, who got it from a magazine, and so far it is working like a charm.

We made a turkey (just construction paper), with a feather for every day from November 1st until Thanksgiving (the 26th, in case you need to know). On the front of the feather is the date, on the back is a clue to where a piece of Halloween candy is hidden (well, two pieces in our case, one for each kid). We rip off a feather each afternoon and away they go! Kind of an advent calendar/treasure hunt combo.

The kids love it; it keeps them occupied for awhile, searching for the candy; and this way the candy gets eaten a little more slowly and I don't get bugged for it. As a bonus, Danny has been making collages out of construction paper, every since helping me make the turkey. Wait, that might not be such a bonus, judging from the million jillion teeny tiny bits of construction paper all over the floor in his room...

Simple loves

2009-11-02T21:48:00.000-08:00

Every night before Danny goes to sleep, we cuddle for a little bit and talk about our day. Tonight, when we concluded and I told him that I loved him, he responded with this: "I love candy. And rocamatrol [remote control, the way Danny says it] cars. And red." I wish everything I loved could be summed up so simply!

And by the way, great grandma: good job with the b-day present! If only it would have been made of candy...

Some tricks, mostly treats

2009-10-31T23:04:00.000-07:00

Happy Halloween!

Danny and Isaac were both spiders this year. About two months ago, the plan had been for Danny to be the web, and Isaac to be the spider, but then Danny changed his mind, so...one brown spider, and one black. Good thing, b/c I had no idea where to begin with making a web costume...

Procrastinator that I am, I didn't finish the costumes until 3 pm today. Chuck threw a wrench in things by deciding to come home with a fluid filled abscess (Chris' diagnosis, which was confirmed by the vet--I think he could moonlight as a veterinarian, he even got the treatment dead on) and needing to be rushed to the vet. And thank goodness he'll be ok, b/c how do you tell a 4-year-old that the cat they nap with is going to die? On Halloween? Not ready for that conversation, yet.

Um, on to the fun part of the day...

We got home from the vet to find a delivery from Edible Arrangements for Danny and Isaac, from Great Grandma. Perfect timing, b/c the only fruit we had left in the house was oranges and I had no idea what to fix for lunch and the kids were both cranky. So we ate fruit for lunch (with a chocolate covered strawberry and ghost pineapple thrown in). Grandma, do you know how many times you've saved me like this, completely unintentionally?! It was also a fabulous change from Halloween candy.

The costumes turned out pretty decent, though I desperately need to put Mom's sewing machine to good use over the winter! I.e., learn to sew my kids REAL costumes, not stuffed extra large hosiery badly sewn to cheap sweatsuits. Yeah, that's what it was :) We amazingly only lost one leg, on the way out of the house, but a safety pin took care of that.

Chris got up early (after staying up until noon carving his pumpkin) so he could trick or treat our neighborhood with us, before heading to work. Then we walked south and meandered west a little, probably only covering 10 blocks in all. But the neighbors were most generous with lots of the good candy, none of those cheapo kinds. I mean, if we're going to eat pounds of refined sugar, it might as well be good. I even discovered (and devoured) a Reese's Whips! Score! Isaac was kind enough to even share some chocolate with Zeus when we got home (not enough for a second vet visit, mind you).

Danny was such a champ this year, yelling "TWICK OR TWEAT!" for every door opened, muscling in with the big kids and all. Isaac did fantastic, following big brother up to every door, until we hit one scary house towards the end, coupled with older kids in scary masks (Saw and Scream, to be exact)--the poor kid actually trembled in my arms. Isaac stayed with me and the wagon the last couple blocks, but Danny wasn't phased a bit.

Then, like a light switch, Danny declared that his feet were getting sleepy and it was time to go home--perfect, b/c we had way too much candy, I had to pee, and Isaac was getting heavy. Some candy sustenance for the 3 blocks to the house was in order. About three times on the way home, Danny declared, "I LOVE Halloween!", with a random "Halloween and Easter are my favorite!" thrown in.

I found myself speed walking home and had to slow down, b/c really, except for Chris not being there, it was a perfect Halloween night: slightly foggy and misty, an almost full moon (that you could see!), not too cold, content children...definitely no need to be speed walking this night.

We'll give this a try...

2009-10-31T22:59:00.001-07:00

...even though Chris told me he'd puke if I started a blog. Bring on the emesis basins!

But seriously:

I am awful about uploading pics to the computer, let alone sending them to grandparents, great-grandparents, friends, etc. Maybe this will help.

I can't remember one day from the next, let alone when the major milestones occur. Maybe this will help.

Sometimes I want to celebrate, brag, vent, etc, and have nowhere to do it. Maybe this will help.

Most importantly: maybe this will help answer the question, "What did I do all day today?"