Eubanks Eutopia

Pharaoh and Bert

2012-01-22T20:16:00.000-05:00

A couple years ago we started doing a nightly "Bible story time." I had read a book called Living God's Story by Jana Hoober, a woman who has 5 children. As a mother of 5, I usually read parenting books with a bit of cynicism, thinking, "Yeah, you probably only have 2 kids. You don't really know how hard this is for me." I know, it's a bad attitude, but sometimes I just feel so overwhelmed with the demands of 5 kids, and I feel like anyone with less than 4 can't fully understand what my life as a parent is like. I apologize to my many friends who have 3 or less kids for my judgmental attitude. You're all very good parents, and probably even better than me. And for you who have more than 5... kudos to you. I don't know how you do it. People say that to me too. I guess we all just do what we can, huh?

Anyway, the point is, when I read a parenting book written by a mother of 5, that means something to me. She gets what my life is like. She is living the same overwhelming chaos as I am. And this thing that she's writing about, works for her. Maybe it will work for me too. The whole idea of her book is teaching your children the Bible, and the main thing is actually READING the Bible with your kids.

So we began with a laid back, go-with-the-flow structure, to have "Bible story time" that coincided with regular "story time" right before bed time. We kept it up for several months. Then Derrick got his job at the railroad and spent 6 weeks in Georgia for training. And I dropped the ball. And I was ok with it for the time being. When he came back he moved to 3rd shift and then to 2nd, making it impossible to have any regular family-together-time. I certainly could read the Bible to my children without him there, but I want it to be a family thing that we are both involved in. So now that he's moved back to 1st shift, we have re-instituted Bible story time. Only now we're doing it at the dinner table. It's a little easier since everyone's already gathered, rather than having to re-gather everybody a couple hours later. We are now at the beginning of Exodus (we couldn't remember where we left off, so we just started at Exodus), reading about the Plagues in Egypt. The other night Sage wanted to read, and she read about 2/3 of a chapter. The only words she needed help with were "Pharaoh" and "sorcerer." She's a genius. Look at her with her cute glasses.

And on a much lighter note...

Parents: Do you ever find a random toy (or object) in your house and have no idea where it came from? It happens here from time to time. This little Bert guy was on my dining room floor this afternoon, and nobody in the house knows where it came from. As far as I can remember, I'd never seen it before. WEIRD.

My Kids and their Coolness

2012-01-12T12:21:00.002-05:00

Yesterday's post was all about my youngest, and I didn't want to leave out the others, so here they are, in chronological order of when the pictures were taken. :)

Jayna is in a gymnastics/dance combo class. Here she is showing off "the Bridge" after her first class. She asked me if I could do it, and I very confidently said "Yeah, I can do the bridge!" So I got down on the floor, put my hands all backwards by my ears, and... I got my back about two inches off the ground. I COULDN'T DO IT! I'm sure the last time I tried, I could do it easily. Another proof I'm getting old.

Cuddling with the doggies. So cute.

Welcome to high school. Alyssa has been shocked at how much work high school is compared to middle school. After a rough start last semester, she's determined to crack down and do better. We're proud of her.

I found a website the other day called "Let the Kids Dress Themselves." I do, all the time. And sometimes the results are pretty fun. This is how I sent her to school today. It blows my mind that this is our perfectionist rule-following child. And she dresses like this frequently. (please ignore my terrible window-plastic-tape job).

Crazy Things My Kids Do

2012-01-11T16:12:00.003-05:00

Hello, 2012! I was thinking it would be fun this year to do a series on "Crazy Things My Kids Do." It won't be every day, and it won't be every post, but whenever the opportunity arises, I will do it. Which means I have to remember to run for the camera during those crazy moments.

Sometimes I feel like I live at the zoo. This past year has been full of lots of poop, and I'm really hoping to see a LOT LESS poop this year. The youngest two are in the (very slow) process of potty training, so by the end of the year I'm hoping they'll both be doing their business on the toilet, and cleaning up after themselves (read: wiping their own butts!). But even without the poop, my kids still do crazy things. And admittedly, it's mostly the boys. Mostly the one boy. So here goes...

This first picture is from last Wednesday. Somehow Tez got a hold of a brand new tube of toothpaste. He had pooped his pants (here we go with the poop), and I was in the bathroom cleaning him up, and I think he must have grabbed the toothpaste on his way out the door without me realizing it (I was a bit distracted from cleaning the poopy underwear - man, just can't get away from it). I sent him upstairs to get clean clothes, and I went up a little later to find him like this, along with little squirts of toothpaste all over the room. I'll be honest, I had a mommy meltdown moment.

And, this is from today. It's fish food. An entire jar of fish food dumped on the floor, rug, and of course, the bat cave. I guess Tez thought batman was hungry? I don't know. I have no good story that goes along with this one. I was in the kitchen making myself some lunch. The boys were being good and quiet (a dead giveaway), I went to check on them, and this is what I found. I did not have a meltdown this time. But I was frustrated.

I took the boys to their first gymnastics class at the Y this morning. Tez LOVED it. Juan was ok with it, but I had to very strongly encourage him to try everything. He just wanted to run around. But they had a good time, and I think they'll do better the more they go and get used to what everything is. I was hoping it would be a way for them to burn some energy (especially Tez), but it's a pretty laid back class and not too physically exerting. Maybe next time we'll do swimming.

December 27-31, 2011

2012-01-04T21:46:00.002-05:00

Picture-A-Day:

Finally, I have made it to the end of my picture-a-day challenge. Turns out 2011 was much more challenging for me than I anticipated. It started with my husband spending 6 weeks on the other side of the country. Which was hard, but it was for the greater good, since it was training for his fantastic job. After a year of unemployment, I don't think I'll ever take a job for granted again. However, 6 weeks as a psudo single mom of 5 - let's just say I never want to do that again. It was one of the hardest things I've done in my life. I held it together pretty well until somebody at church decided to be encouraging around week 5, and said I was doing a great job, and gave me a hug, and then I just lost it and cried and cried. After that D was on 3rd shift for a few months, which was tough on both of us for different reasons. Then he moved to 2nd which was much better. Now he's on 1st again, so it's another adjustment.

Our boys were both 1 at the beginning of the year, and had turned 2 by the end. We waded through a sea of poop (not literally, though it kind of feels like it), a lot of broken things, and spent a lot of time putting out fires (also not literally, thankfully). Many days I felt like all I did was clean up a mess in time for 3 or 4 more to be made. Many times I faced moments of panic and quick thinking as several crises were happening at the same time and I had to decide which to take care of at the same time (for example, Sage spilled milk all over the table/floor, Tez took off his poopy diaper and smeared poop all over, and the dog peed on the floor, and Jayna was crying because ... whatever). All these things happen withing seconds of each other, and I have to quickly prioritize and delegate, and decide what can wait. Meanwhile, dinner is burning on the stove because that's what I was in the middle of before all these crises started happening. Is there anyone out there who can relate? I can think of a few who probably can. Anyway, looking back on 2011, those are the moments I think of.

This year has been a whirlwind. But, there have also been good things. We went camping 3 times, one of those was in MN with my family, after attending the wedding of a dear childhood friend. We adopted our boys officially, though we've had them since they were born. We went to the beach a couple times, and the Elkhart county fair... yeah, that's all I can think of right now. Honestly, we didn't do a ton, mainly because everything was so hard with the boys. I'm relieved to say though, that in the last few months things have gotten easier. The "incidents" are much fewer and farther between. We haven't had any poop incidents in a long time (just toothpaste, and at least that smells good). They're understanding more, communicating better, and that makes things a lot easier.

I'm looking forward to 2012. We have some financial goals we've been working on for a LOOOOONG time that will (hopefully) finally be achieved. This year the boys turn 3, which was the magic age for my girls. Everything lightened up at that age, and I'm crossing my fingers that it will with the boys too. My baby brother is getting married this summer, and I'm super excited about another trip to MN. My photography business exceeded my expectations for 2011, and I'm anticipating 2012 being even better. I'll be 34 this year. Sometimes I can't even believe it. I still feel like that 12 year old girl who thought 34 was "so old." Ok, moving on:

12.27.11 - It snowed a bit AFTER Christmas, so the kids made this fantastic leafy snowman!

12.28.11 - Ok, I can handle a box of tissues, as long as it's not poop! It's true, "that which doesn't kill us makes us stronger," because after living through trying experiences, the lesser trials seem easy.

12.31.11 - my little artists at work. Sage bought herself a canvas and painted this beautiful ocean scene with an orange dolphin swimming. :)

Happy 2012. Now I can go back to posting at my leisure. :)

December 21st - 25th

2011-12-26T22:50:00.000-05:00

Picture-A-Day:I think I can, I think I can... Just a few more days left of 2011. I'm still not used to writing 2011. My hand wants to write 2006 or 2009. Weird. Anyway, we had a really nice Christmas. I always feel a little sad the years we don't go to MN for Christmas. There really is no place like home. I'm so lucky and blessed to have no drama in my family. My mom and dad and brothers and sisters-in-law (and us) - we all love each other, love to spend time together, and maybe it's because we're all so spread out, but we always get along when we're together. That wasn't always the case with me and my bro Jake. We didn't used to get along well for several adolescent years. But the less we saw of each other, the better we got along when we did get together. Does that sound bad? I don't know, but over the last 10 years or so we've both grown up a lot, gotten married, had children. And now we love spending time together. But alas, this is an odd year, and so, not a Christmas family reunion year. But lucky us, my baby brother is getting married in June, so we will have 2 family reunions in 2012! Nevertheless, we did have a lovely Christmas at home. We spent the 24th and 25th mostly at home, doing family things together. To celebrate Christmas Eve (I feel strongly that Christmas Eve must be celebrated - probably because my mom's family has a big party on Christmas Eve every year. They have as long as I can remember. Maybe since before I was born, I don't know. But I just can not NOT celebrate Christmas Eve. So, since we didn't have any plans, I made popcorn and chili cheese dip and cookies. We played Apples to Apples Jr. Then we put the boys to bed and the 5 of us watched Elf (the best Christmas movie EVER). Then we put the girls to bed, then loaded up the tree with all the goods. It wasn't a big party, but it was fun, together, family time.I get as giddy as a little kid on Christmas morning. I got up at 6am to find Sage on the couch watching TV because she "couldn't sleep." Everyone else got up around 7. We of course opened presents, had monkey bread, then went to church. I loved our Christmas morning service. I love our church. It was a small crowd and the "band" was down to about 3 people, so we had an acoustic caroling jam session.We came home and Derrick spent the entire afternoon cooking an amazing dinner, of which I've already bragged profusely on Facebook. I spent most of the afternoon making an apple pie. The kids got Just Dance for the Wii, and we all took turns dancing. That game is so fun! Everyone loves it. Ok, here are the pictures:

12.23.11. - I love these ghosty action shots. The boys were working together building "train tracks" out of books, and running a truck over it. In this picture the books are all scattered from being run over a few times.

12.24.11 - I made Challah bread for Christmas. Challah is some kind of Jewish bread. I don't really know the significance of it. Derrick had a recipe for homemade stuffing, which called for Challah bread, so he asked me to make some. I made the dough in the bread machine, then baked it in the oven. It's SO DELICIOUS! And the stuffing was amazing.

12.25.11 - Christmas Day in the evening. When I was a kid my Grandma used to make all the grandkids new PJ's for Christmas. Every year when we went over there for the big Christmas Eve party, we'd all get our new jammies, and we'd all wear them home that night. Since the grandkids are mostly all grown up now, the tradition has moved on to the great grandkids. And since we didn't make it to the Christmas Eve party, they got to open them on Christmas morning along with all the other presents. So here they are in their Grammie Jammies. This is the "silly face" picture. :)
G'nite y'all. Hope you had a lovely Christmas too.

December 2nd - 19th

2011-12-19T22:09:00.000-05:00

Picture-A-Day:
And this time Blogger uploaded all the pictures in reverse chronological order. So we're starting with today, and working our way to the beginning of December.
I am so glad it's December, I pretty much majorly failed at this picture-a-day thing. But I'm not a quitter, even if I'm a failure. So I'm doing the best I can, and I'm going to finish out the year. If you make it to the end, you'll get to read a story. Written by me. About life with two 2-year-old boys. And a few girls. If you have 2-year-old boys (or 3-year-old boys) you might not want to read the story. It might stress you out. Then again, you might take comfort in knowing you're not alone.

12.19.11 - my son (my son! - it's still exciting to say that) loves to make any object into either drums, guitars, or pianos. Here he is making guitars into drums. Love this kid. I posted a video here of him in action.

12.17.11 - Jayna had her first dance recital on Saturday. She said she had a good time, and wants to do it again, but she seemed very self-conscious. I'm working on some you tube's. I took lots of video. ;)

12.13.11 - Sage's first recital was also last week. She did great, and can't wait to dance on stage at the Lerner in May.

12.10.11 - The kids were SO EXCITED about the inch of snow we got.

12.9.11 - Daddy with his boys and his dogs.

12.6.11 - Making Christmas cookies. Even the teenager was excited about this girls night activity.

12.2.11 - Putting up our tree. The whole Christmas tree thing has been interesting this year. We debated on how to "toddler proof" - you'd think two 2-year-olds would be easier to deal with than two 1-year-olds. Well, our boys didn't walk til they were well past 1 year, so I'm pretty sure they were both on the floor last year at this time. We had an old luggage chest that we lifted the tree onto to give it a little extra height. This year the boys are not only walking, but CLIMBING ANYTHING THEY CAN HOLD ON TO. In the end we decided our fake tree is 8 years old, so if it is completely destroyed, no biggie. We'll just get a new one after Christmas when they're $20 like we did 8 years ago. We didn't put any fragile ornaments on at all. Wait, scratch that. Everything in the house is fragile with these boys around. We didn't put any GLASS ornaments on the tree, and put the "I don't care if they get destroyed" ornaments at the bottom where the boys could reach. What I didn't count on was them pulling a stool over to the tree to reach the "middle height" ornaments, which are also now all destroyed. Important things like a paper snowman Sage made in pre-school. And, ironically, THE most important ornament we have (had) didn't even go on the tree, but got broken because *somebody* (ahem... Sage) was swinging it around while I was telling her that even though it is beautiful, and meaningful, we are not getting it out this year because we do not want it to get broken. She dropped it, and it shattered all over the floor. It was a clear glass ball filled with fake snow and it had hand painted people with all our names on it (minus the boys because it's from before we had them). {Grandma Jean, don't tell Jan, she gave it to us! Just kidding, you can tell her.}
Also, the boys have pulled out several branches, and instead of fighting to get them back into their proper slots on the center pole, I just stuck them in where it looks like they might fit. I think the tree is going to make it, but we might not have any ornaments left for next year. I even made some cute felt ornaments for each of the kids (like 4 days ago), and every single one of them is now either lost or destroyed.
My mantra for this season of my life is "it's just things."

Adoption Announcement

2011-12-06T11:28:00.001-05:00

We are very excited to announce the adoption of two very special little boys. We have been caring for them as foster parents since they were each only 4 days old. We have loved them as if they were truly our own, and today the judge made it official. They are OURS!

Introducing:

Juan Michael Eubanks

born April 25th, 2009

entered our home April 29th, 2009

(he was a 4lb 12oz tiny little peanut!)

adopted December 6th, 2011

(he's still a little guy, and a sweet cuddle bug)

And...

Tyshawn (Tez) William Eubanks

born October 2nd, 2009

entered our home October 6th, 2009

(I wouldn't have survived without my awesome little helpers)

adopted December 6th, 2011

(he is a complete and total ham)

November 13th

2011-12-05T21:31:00.001-05:00

Picture-A-Day:these are out of order, but I don't care. it's a pain in the *butt* rearranging pictures on blogger. so, here they are:

11.16.11 - I found a bunch of colored flash attachments. This is the red one (obviously). I was trying the different colors out, I like the red for Christmas.

11.30.11 - I taught the girls how to make paper snow flakes. Jayna cried and cried that she couldn't do it. Her first one fell apart because she cut up the one side that holds everything together. But she persevered, and she came up with a really great one in the end.

11.29.11 - First snow accumulation of the season. And our Jack-o's are dying! They're still out there. I like to let the kids throw them at the tree in our yard to smash them up. It's fun. But I also like to make it kind of a family activity, and honestly, I just never think about it when we're all together. Which is hardly ever. We'll do it one of these days, or else they'll just go in the compost without getting smashed.

11.25.11 - Alyssa's going to hate me for this. Shhh... don't tell her. The girls have been getting along so well lately, it makes me happy.

11.24.11 - Thanksgiving Day at aunt Dana's. Baby girl is growing up. It seems like yesterday she was a shy, sweet little 5-year-old.

11.22.11 - She fell asleep and one by one the dogs came to cuddle with her. I'm not much of a dog person, but I do love how they love to cuddle. If Pippin sees a person with a blanket, he's right there. And they're WARM!

11.21.11 - They're finally outgrowing some (only some) of the toddler craziness. I brought out some duplo's (the giant lego's), and they built towers for about 30 minutes. They had such a good time. I'm amazed they can focus on one activity for more than 30 seconds.

11.20.11 - Yea for potty training!!! We're rarely home all day or even long enough for him to wear undies around the house, but he loves going pee on the potty (I think he's just in it for the M&M's, but that's ok with me, I'll take it). He goes way more than he probably really needs to. I can not express how ready I am to be done with diapers! It's been over 6 years since we started the diaper game. That's a lot of butt wiping.

And, I'm done with November! December is exciting. I love Christmas! I love everything about it - music, lights, decorations, the festiveness. Now all we need is a good snow storm between now and the big day. I'm ready. We got a couple inches that one day, but it's all gone now. December just doesn't feel real without snow. I don't know what I'd do if I lived WAY south and had to wear shorts and t-shirts in December.

November 11-12

2011-11-28T20:46:00.001-05:00

Picture-A-Day:

11.11.11 - On Veterans Day the girls' school put on a beautiful program honoring veterans. I think Veteran's Day seems more significant during war time, because we have seen so many men and women we know coming and going in the war. Also, the principal at the school is a Marine veteran, so he is particularly zealous about Veteran's Day. I'll admit, I'm not the most patriotic person. I tend to have a more global perspective on the human race and cringe at the idea of thinking that our country is somehow "better" than others. But this VD ceremony was so moving, it gave me a new appreciation for what it really means to serve in our military. There were about 5 guest veterans there, who each spoke for a few minutes about their experiences. All of them are somehow related to the school - one man, probably in his 60's had grown up in the 'hood in Elkhart. His daughter is now a teacher at Mary Beck. Another man, I'd put him around 35-40? went to Mary Beck as a child, and now has children who go there. I think it made it very real to the kids to be able to see these people who were once in their shoes, in their neighborhoods, in their school, and how they grew up to be honorable citizens, serving in the U.S. military. I got teared up a couple times. A group of 6th graders had a flag which they folded and presented to one of the Vet's. The kids sang patriotic songs - many familiar ones (can't think of any at the moment), and another one that I'd never heard before that gave me goose bumps, the kids were singing with such feeling. It talked about how we may be of different races, different beliefs, etc, but "we are one nation and we are one land," - I don't know, I just love that. And it's especially powerful coming from such a racially diverse school. Many students even speak a different language. My kids are somewhere in this crowd, but I couldn't see them very well.

11.12.11 - Stuff A Bus! Every year our friend John organizes this event and coordinates with the IBEW and our church to get volunteers. This year he also added the boy scouts to the mix. What a fun way to serve the community, by bring different organizations together. We stand outside of Martin's grocery store passing out a list of needs, asking people to buy a few extra things to be donated to a local charity. This year the food went to the Salvation Army. People are always very responsive and that bus gets pretty full! It's a fun time, and a pretty easy way to teach the kids about serving in the community.

November 2-9

2011-11-27T22:01:00.001-05:00

Picture-A-Day: Here we go. Hopefully I can finish up November in time for December. It's fun writing about my family again. I've missed this. It's hard to believe how much they've grown in a year.

11.2.11 - I got to go on the Kindergarten field trip to Kercher's Farm with Jayna. SO FUN! She's so beautiful.

11.3.11 - I'm pretty sure this is the day I got my new camera because I have 85 pictures from that day. It was hard to choose, because there were some fun ones. This one cracks me up though.

11.4.11 - Watching SYTYCD (know what that stands for?), practicing their moves.

11.5.11 - who knew you could still harvest fresh spinach in November?? Thank Bill Gates for spell check because I always spell spinach wrong.

11.7.11 - I had a photo shoot at this park in the late afternoon. It was right after the time change so we forgot how early it would start getting dark! I like how the lights are reflecting on the water.

11.9.11 - You might not know this, but Derrick played Tuba and Trombone in high school. I guess lately he's had an itch to play music again, because he decided to buy a trumpet. It's more melodic than the Tuba, not to mention much smaller, lighter, and less expensive. So far he can play Happy Birthday. It reminded me of my friend Heidi's dad (hi Heidi!) who used to play Happy Birthday on the trumpet at every birthday. He probably still does, for all I know! I had forgotten all about that until Derrick busted it out. What fun.

October 28-30

2011-11-27T21:41:00.001-05:00

Oops, I accidentally lied. Not quite to November yet. I forgot I had these in a separate folder. We celebrated our 8th wedding anniversary this year, on October 24th. We've had a rough year (read: toddler overkill!) and needed to get away. We arranged babysitting for all the kids (that took some serious planning, let me tell ya - but it was worth it!), and spent 2 nights at an adorable bed and breakfast in Goshen run by a sweet little Mennonite couple. The woman reminded me of my Grandma U, who died when I was 15. Something about her soft white skin and wrinkles. They were a real treat to talk to. They have 6 children, something like 44 grandchildren and 26 great grandchildren! She had figured up that if each of her grandchildren had only 4 children, she'd have like 120 great grandchildren or something. It was crazy. Anyway, I didn't take too many pictures that weekend, but here are few of the peaceful scenery we enjoyed.

October 22-31

2011-11-27T21:28:00.001-05:00

Picture-A-Day:
End of October, yay! It's been a very busy fall for me. I've slowed down in the last 2 weeks though, got caught up on some things around the house, and am finding myself with some free time in the evenings. (gasp! free time?!? seriously?!?) Not exactly free. There are things I COULD and probably SHOULD be doing - like cleaning the floors or something. But that's boring. I'd rather blog. :)

So, when last we left, we were at Pumpkin Day. My mom and dad came down for the weekend of Fall break. The Saturday after pumpkin day I had the opportunity to do a family photo shoot on the campus of Notre Dame. I'd been on the campus a couple times, but never had the chance to really walk around and see how beautiful it is. It is beautiful. See here for an upwards shot of the famous Golden Dome.

10.22.11 - Sage and G-ma Mary at ND, it was a beautiful fall day. I love this picture, they're so cute!

Later that afternoon we took the kids to the park. Love these funny girls.

10.23.11 - trying to learn about histograms. boring. :/

10.31.11 - Trick-or-Treat! This year the boys were big enough to do their own trick-or-treating. It was so fun seeing them get into it. I had to help them at the first 2 houses, and after that they were off and running. They were kind of in awe that they could just walk up to someone's house and get candy. And I have to admit that as a parent, trick-or-treating is kind of weird, isn't it? I never thought about it as a kid, but once a year you put a costume on your kids, take them knocking on doors begging for candy? So weird. Recently I was teaching the girls about how you're never supposed to take candy from strangers, and if a stranger invites you to their house to give you candy or cookies, you should tell them that you have to go home and ask your mom first. Sage said "Except when you're trick-or-treating, right?" I felt awkward, but my answer was, "well, yes, mommy and daddy are with you when you're trick-or-treating." Which is true. But it's still weird.

I can't believe I'm just now blogging about Halloween. If it weren't so close to the end of the year, I'd give up altogether on this picture-a-day mumbo jumbo. I've all but given up on it already, I only actually have pictures for about 12 days a month. But I'm going to persevere and continue the facade of picture-a-day for the rest of this year. So stay tuned, November is here.

Pumpkin Day, part 2

2011-11-10T08:54:00.001-05:00

This is my 4th attempt, I think, at this post. I've started it and then forgot to save it, had to start over... story of my life. Anyway, here we are, after the pumpkin patch, home carving pumpkins into Jack-o-lanterns, celebrating a couple very important October birthdays, eating yummy fall desserts.

Pumpkin Day, part 1

2011-11-06T15:01:00.001-05:00

I'm skipping Picture-A-Day for the 2nd half of October, because I really only have pictures from Pumpkin Day, and the day after when Gma and Gpa Ulasich were here visiting. So, here you have, Pumpkin Day, part 1: the pumpkin patch that had no pumpkins.

This was the 2nd Annual Eubanks Family Pumpkin Day. The 3rd Friday in October the kids are off school for Fall Break. It's a week-ish before Halloween, so it's a great time to spend the day pumpkin picking, taking pretty fall pictures, and spending an all-around wonderful day together as a family.

This year Gma and Gpa U came to visit over the weekend, so they got to join the fun.
In the morning I called the pumpkin patch we were planning to go to, just to make sure they were open. They were flooded from all the rain, so nope, not open. Bummer. So we decided on Amish Acres. I'd never been there, but it gets a lot of hype in these parts, so I figured it must be pretty special.

It was ok. There was lots of pretty scenery, and it was nice to walk around and see everything. We even got to do a wine tasting! It was my first one, and it was awesome. I loved that part. But the weird thing was, we couldn't find the pumpkin patch. I finally asked someone about it, and apparently it's far away and you have to take a hay wagon ride to get there. And they weren't running the wagon that day. So, no pumpkins! But it's ok, because we passed a little farm selling pumpkins in the driveway, so we bought $20 worth of pumpkins (because I only had a $20 and they had a lock box honor-system thing for payment!) It was still a good day.

the wine tasting

the pumpkin choosing

funny cows on the farm!

Stay tuned for part 2 of the Pumpkin Day saga...

October 4-12

2011-10-15T19:37:00.001-04:00

Picture-A-Day:We've had lots of fun in the leaves this week! It was the perfect fall week - lots of leaves, and lots of sunshine!

10.4.11 - playing with friends

10.5.11 - little dreadies!

10.7.11 - happy 2nd birthday (guitar in hand)

10.8.11 - feeling artsy before a family portrait session. LOVE fall!

10.11.11 - playing in the leaves

10.12.11 - JUMPING in the leaves. What fun.

October 1st

2011-10-06T16:47:00.001-04:00

Picture-A-Day:

(actually, 4 pictures this day)Last Saturday we took the kids to the Harvest festival thingy (can't remember what it's called). Anyway, it was in Central Park in Elkhart.

September 25th-30th

2011-10-04T22:44:00.002-04:00

Picture-A-Day:
October is getting away with me, I need to finish September! Yikes!

This first picture is of a concert we went to last weekend. It was a Nepali folk band called Katumba (I think?).They were SO. MUCH. FUN. I brought my little girls, and left the boys home with the big girl. The instruments were beautiful works of art in themselves, intricately carved things that resembled guitars, banjo's, shakers, drums, etc. I love cultural music. I love anything "cultural" - anything that highlights differences between other cultures and mine. I love the beauty of all the different lifestyles in the world. In the end, we're all just people. But we express our lives in such different ways, and that fascinates me. I blows my mind that this group came all the way from Nepal, to little old Elkhart. They played in the basement of the Roosevelt Center, which used to be a school and is now an apartment building. It seemed so random. Apparently someone who works at the farm (where we're CSA members) had lived in Nepal for some time, and he had connections to this group. That's how they ended up in Elkhart. They were raising money to build a school. Their T-shirts said "The whole world is one single family." I love that. I bought a shirt. I don't usually buy concert shirts, because I'm too cheap. I already paid to get into the concert, and now they want more of my money?? But I couldn't resist this shirt. During the 2nd half of the concert, kids and brave adults went to the front of the room and danced their hearts out. It was fun to watch. I'm not much of a dancer, private or public. But I love to watch. And I especially love to watch my kids dance.

9.25.11

9.28.11 - Our new puppy! Derrick's been wanting another dog for years. He always said when he finished school he would get another dog. Well, when he finished school a year and a half ago, we were planning a two-week cross country trip at the end of the summer, and I said no way are we taking a puppy on a road trip. So we waited. And ever since then he's been checking the ads every now and then, looking for just the right dog. Nothing too big (he'd like a big dog someday, but wants to wait til we have some land, space for a big dog to run). Nothing too expensive. Last Wednesday he came across an ad for this rat terrier beagle mix, for a low price. We drove down to Nappanee, to an Amish-looking farm, took a quick look at this girl, and decided she would be a good fit.

We decided to name her Ramona. We all brainstormed names for about a day, then took a family vote.

We pretty much love her. I'm not a dog person, but I might really enjoy this girl.

Sometimes it's a bit like having another toddler in the house. She's not anywhere near as demanding as my toddlers, but she pees and poops in the house, chews things she's not supposed to, isn't interested in the toys we bought for her. You know, typical kid stuff. But she hasn't been too terrible. I think she'll turn out to be a good doggie.

9.29.11 - Oh, my little drummer boy. This kid makes anything into a musical instrument. He LOVES beating on drums (or actually, beating anything onto anything else to make a loud noise), strumming guitars (or anything that might look like a guitar - like a rake!), or plunking on a piano or keyboard. He turns jump rope handles into microphones. He is a musician and a performer. I can't wait to see where he goes with it.

9.30.11 - My lovely daughter got an award at school last week. I was about 5 minutes late. I thought it was a whole school assembly, and that the first few minutes would be the principle talking, etc. But it was just the Kindergarten classes in one of the class rooms. Jayna was the first one to get an award, so I walked in just in time to hear her teacher say, "And this award goes to Jayna!" I didn't get to hear all the wonderful things her teacher said about her, but the award was for being "respectful." I'm so proud of her.

On a somewhat-related note - at Jayna's conference recently, her teacher said she is SO quiet! She has to shush the other kids just to hear Jayna's quiet little voice. I never thought she was much like me in her personality, but I was super shy in school, and all my teachers said I was SO quiet. So, I guess we have something in common after all.

And I'm done for now, guess I was in a chatty mood tonight. Thanks for reading.

September 19th-23rd

2011-10-02T07:00:00.000-04:00

Picture-A-Day:

9.20.11

9.21.11 - better get as much dirt time as you can, little guy, cuz there's not gonna be any more for a loooooong time.

9.23.11 - a lovely fall boquet my mommy sent me. She figured I could use something to cheer me up after all the poop I've been dealing with in my life. She's so sweet and thoughtful. I LOVE fall flowers - maybe because I got married in the fall, and these colors and flowers remind me of my wedding. Anyway, it DID brighten my week, so thanks mom!

September 16th - 18th

2011-10-01T20:58:00.002-04:00

Picture-A-Day:

9.15.11 - cool vintage camera I got

9.17.11 - Jayna's ballet/tap class. They're so cute. I wish we'd been able to get her started a couple years ago, but she's having a good time.

An hour or so after I put the boys to bed, I went up to check on them, and this is what I found. What a goof ball! (in case you can't tell, this is a dresser drawer. The funniest thing, to me, is he has his pillow and blanket in there with him, as if he planned it!

9.18.11 - And, the next night - T is in J's bed, and J is over on the chair. They're so funny, I'm trying to take lots of pictures of this because it will make them laugh when they're older. They don't do this every night, and I think they're getting more used to sleeping in beds rather than cribs, so they're not doing it as often anymore, but it cracks me up.

September 13th & 14th

2011-09-18T19:41:00.001-04:00

Picture-A-Day:

Some of you have asked to see my dread locks, so her they are, just a few days old. I only did two in the front and wrapped some ribbons around them to make them pretty. I have since taken the ribbons out because they're a bit of a hindrance to all the palm rolling I have to do in the process of getting the dreads to lock up. I like them, so far. I'm tempted to add another one here or there. We'll see

And, this is the Ringling Bros. BB Circus train that drove right past my house the other day. It was fun to see. Last year I read the book "Water For Elephants." I liked it. Then I saw the movie when it came out. So watching the circus train go by reminded me of those stories, and it made me happy.

September 4th - 11th

2011-09-11T21:43:00.002-04:00

Picture-A-Day:Here we go...

9.4.11 - Huge, nasty, beautiful spider IN MY YARD. Usually I don't see these exotic looking spiders, just normal brown ones.

9.5.11 - Hanging with friends at the NLCC back-to-school party on Labor Day.

9.6.11 - "canning" zucchini. Actually, I just dumped in jars to freeze. I've been trying for ages to figure out a better way of freezing things than plastic baggies. I'm kind of against most things disposable for environmental and financial reasons. I do have some plastic containers (Rubbermaid, I think). They work ok, but they're fairly expensive and I always seem to run out. My MIL gave me a bunch of her canning jars, so I used these quart-size jars for the zucchini. I like it. I've also been using canning jars for regular food storage in the fridge, like leftover soup. It's more space-effective (is that the right word?) than square containers, I think. And I think glass is better for the environment than plastic for multiple reasons, which I'm not going to go into right now.

9.8.11 - I dread-locked D's hair for the 2nd time. The first time was over a year ago. After he'd had them for a few months he cut them off for a job interview. He got the job, and is still there, so it's good that he cut them off, though we'll never know if it actually affected his chances. Anyway, it went a lot quicker and easier the 2nd time. And if you didn't see on facebook, I gave myself a couple. Just a couple because I'm not brave enough to do my whole head, but I like they way you can decorate them with ribbons and beads.

9.10.11 - My little computer girl. She cracked me up the other day, she wanted to play on the computer (usually she plays games on PBSkids.org, or some Barbie game. Suddenly she was on You Tube watching a Justin Bieber video! I asked her how she found that, and she said "I googled it." I didn't teach her to do that. Her big sister did.

9.11.11 - My precious girls. Last week at church we had a guest speaker who is a pastor in India. The girls were touched by his stories of the Indian people whom he works with (yep, I just said "whom" and I think I used it right!). They wanted to help, and Jayna came up with the idea that "Rich people should give a lot of their money to the Indian people." And from there she decided that if people would give her a lot of money, she could send it to India to help the people. So we took a collection at church this morning, and brought in $127.50. (doesn't sound like much, but we're a really small church!) And we're going to continue to collect through the month of September. Here they are sorting coins (using their sweet giving little hearts to teach them math!)

September 3rd

2011-09-06T07:52:00.003-04:00

Picture-A-Day:

Saturday we got our family pictures taken. We got to the park a few minutes early, so while we waited for our photographer, we scoped out the area. I couldn't help taking this cute pic with my own camera.

September 2nd

2011-09-04T22:34:00.002-04:00

Picture-A-Day:

There are a bunch of pictures on this day, because we had Jayna's birthday party on Friday.

She asked for a strawberry cake, for the 3rd year in a row (last year it was strawberry-banana).

She really likes strawberries, I guess.

And pizza for dinner, which gave us a great excuse to get pizza from our favorite place in Elkhart, Colombo's.

The boys in a rare moment in the dining room, beating on the piano.

Jayna got to invite her friends over for dinner and cake. These girls have been friends for a long time and it's been really fun watching their friendships bloom as they've grown up.

"Happy Birthday to YOU!"

I always have to get the "blowing out the candles" picture, thanks to my mom, who always did it to me and my brothers. It bothered me when I was a teenager, because I thought I looked goofy making that face, but now I can't resist - it seems like such an important moment!

Birthday Skype with Grandma Mary and Grandpa Mike (Grandmas Toni, Jan, and Jean, and Grandpa Bill were at the party too, but oops, didn't get any pictures of them.) I love how "Skype" has become a verb. As in, "do you wanna Skype tonight?" Kinda like "message me." Technology is cool.

Thank you for the new hat, scarves, and dress Uncle Jake and Aunt Cassie!

August 31st

2011-09-03T22:31:00.001-04:00

I have no picture for this day, but I am going to paint you an imaginary picture. I am getting a little bit tired of whining about how crazy my boys are, but I am also blown away by the fact that we can NOT get through a day without some kind of incident involving an extreme mess.

So, Thursday morning, Derrick and I are each doing our separate activities. (That was our mistake - one of us should have been watching the boys, though we were both within sight of them). Suddenly I hear Derrick saying something like "What are you doing? No, No, No!" I turn around, and there are our toddlers covered from head to toe in vasaline. They got into a mostly-full jar, and completely emptied it onto each other, the floor, the door behind them, the heat vent/grate. Derrick took them to the bath tub, and I did my best to clean up the living room before I had to run out to take Jayna to the doctor for her Kindergarten physical (she passed!).

While I was at the doctor with Jayna, Derrick was getting the boys cleaned, lunched, and then put to bed. I got home shortly after they went down for naps, and then Derrick left for work for the night. A couple hours later the boys were awake, I went upstairs to get them, and the smell of poop was overwhelming. And J was diaperless. So I searched the room but couldn't find a poopy diaper. I did, however, find poop. On the floor. On J's bed. On J's hands and shirt. On toys and clothes that were scattered around the room. Smeared onto the front of the air conditioner. Meanwhile, the boys had started their usual post-nap begging for a snack, and getting very upset because I was thinking about anything other than getting their snack. So stressful. (I did eventually find the diaper, btw.)

Fast forward through snack time, and part of the afternoon. Sometime around 4:30, I was making dinner and on the phone at the same time (I'm thinking about giving up the phone while the boys are awake, because seriously, it's just TOO MUCH). I glanced in the living room and found T sitting on the couch holding a bottle of algae killer he'd gotten from the cabinet under the fish tank. The bottle was empty. And there was a puddle on the floor in front of the fish tank. I just about had a melt down right then and there. My friend Tiff was on the other end of the phone waves, and she said "Jeannine, you should just take them to McDonald's." And that's what I did. I couldn't handle one more thing happening that day, so I took them all to McDonald's for dinner, and we didn't come home until it was bed time.

When the vasaline thing happened, I did run for the camera, but it wouldn't turn on. The battery was dead. And it was a couple days before I thought to charge it. So. (ha, I just ended a sentence with "so.")

August 30th

2011-09-03T22:10:00.002-04:00

As you know, we have been having some difficulty with our boys these last couple weeks. It's nothing too out of the ordinary, they just all of a sudden started breaking through all the baby-proofing we've done. We spend a couple weeks chasing them around putting out fires (figuratively), before we were able to slow down enough to realize we now need to TODDLER proof our house, which is a lot different than baby proofing. We had to reinforce baby gates because the boys were knocking them down. We had to buy stronger cupboard door locks because the boys broke some of them. We have had to do some other similar things around the house in order to save our sanity. Somewhere in the middle of that chaos, I said "Let's take the boys to the zoo." I really wanted to get them out and do something fun with them, rather than being frustrated with cleaning up after them all the time. I wanted a chance to enjoy their company, watch them learn, and have fun together. Derrick came with us, which made it extra fun. Much as I love doing things as a family, it was nice to be able to focus all of our attention on the boys. It was refreshing, and fun.

This is sort of the traditional zoo picture that we have always taken with the girls, so I had to take one of the boys too. {If you want to see more zoo animal pictures, click here.}

August 24th - 29th

2011-08-30T20:19:00.000-04:00

Picture-A-Day:
Ok, I'm resolving to get back on track with this. Sometimes I get to the end of the day and I intend to post, but I just feel so tired, so I don't.
Anyway, here's about a week's worth.

This was storm clouds rolling right as the sun was setting, and they were very cool looking. Can you see the face? Kinda creepy.

My awesome little guy is pretty much potty training himself. He has been wearing underwear for about a week now, with only a couple accidents. He loves those M&M's! He also loves his "Cars" underwear.

This one, not so much on the potty training thing. He's not even 2 yet, so I'm ok with it. He's been showing more interest in sitting on the potty for longer periods of time, which is a good start.

My little ballerina on her birthday. Love that girl.

We went camping last weekend with our church family. Last camping trip of the season. Both of us were kind of dreading it, mainly because the boys have been so difficult lately, but we were really glad we went, it's always good to live somewhat communally like that. And I just love the "dad making breakfast" picture I get on every camping trip. :) He's so fun.

Oh yum, homemade bruchetta! Almost every time a restaurant offers Bruchetta, I order it. I LOVE it so much. I came across a very simple recipe for it, and had everything already in my house, except the bread. Since I had to go to the store anyway, I bought a crusty baguette and whipped this up to go with dinner. In case you're wondering, it's just tomatoes, onions, basil, garlic, olive oil, salt, and a splash of balsamic vinegar. Toast the bread (I did about 4 or 5 small slices in the toaster oven), drizzle with olive oil, and top with tomato topping. OH SO DELICIOUS!!!

I love this. About every other night when I go check on the boys, this is what I find. Since they're not in cribs anymore, I put them to bed and then just let them piddle around their room til they go to sleep. At first I expected to find them in weird places, like curled up in the corner of the closet or something, but nope, it's this. My girls used to do this, and it melted my heart then, and it does now. Exhausting as these guys are lately, this picture reminds me how precious they are.

August 1-23

2011-08-24T15:25:00.000-04:00

Ok, folks, here is August up 'til now. Out of 23 days, I have 8 pictures. Epic fail, but for my excuse, read my previous post. Add to that, school started one week ago today, and we've been shopping every other day for needed school supplies, clothes, shoes. Trying to set up some systems of organization for the new school year, and everybody is adjusting to a new sleep schedule and a more structured day. I want to say I'll do better in September, but at this point I'm so overwhelmed I'd like to crawl into bed and not come back out until April. I love Fall, but I hate Winter. I want to skip it. I'm happy about cooler nights and sunny breezy days, but I'm dreading the falling temps and shorter days. Anyway, here are my pics for this month:

I found this light on sale at Menards, and thought it would work for indoor portraits. Here's me trying it out on my boys. We'll see.

We took one last trip to the beach before school started, and the weather could not have been more perfect. The waves were big, and these two were having a blast letting the water crash over their heads.

Updating some of my "letters." Some of my pics were taken with an "old" camera, so I thought I'd re-do them with my "better" camera, hoping the quality will be a bit better. (This is the letter "T" incase you couldn't tell).

First day of school, most of you saw this on facebook.

Oh, this is cool - all of these veggeis came from the Farm, and I used them to make my famous homemade salsa. Famous only to me, because I love it. I also add black beans and corn, but the Farm doesn't give me those.

Oh, yeah, Karaoke! This picture is horrible because it was taken from my phone and it was pretty dark. But this is Derrick doing Karaoke. We went out with a bunch of his work friends to celebrate a birthday, and after dinner went to Rulli's. Derrick sang Fight For Your Right To Party (Beastie Boys), which is a GREAT karaoke song, especially late in the night when everyone has had plenty to drink. He's my hero.

My little posers. I did some family pics that day, and was practicing with my new flash outside. Not the big light. I also got a new flash. Yeah, look at me getting big fancy equipment! Now I just need a new fancy (er) camera.

And, this is yesterday, my first try at canning. I bought this crappy $9 plastic canning kit at Kroger, mainly because I really wanted to give it a try, but all the canning equipment is quite expensive, and with this fun recession we've been having, everyone and their grandma is trying to do their own canning (a positive result of a rough situation, in my opinion). The down side to that is, there is no used canning equipment to be found. A handful of people are getting rid of jars, but that's all I've been able to find. So what's the first thing I do? Turn on the wrong burner and melt my plastic *thing* - sorry, I don't know what this is called. A rack? I can't say that word without thinking about boobs, thanks to my wonderful husband who's mind is still stuck in 7th grade sometimes. Anyway, regardless of the melted hole in the bottom of my rack (don't laugh - ok, laugh, but you know what I mean), I was able to successfully can two jars of salsa, and now that I've done it once I'm itching to do it some more. It's like a high. I did see some canning stuff on sale at Lowe's so I might have to head over there soon.

Cheers, friends, and thanks for reading. Happy canning. :)

July 23-31

2011-08-22T20:23:00.003-04:00

Picture-A-Day:
YES, I am still here. Picture-A-Day has kind of fallen by the way side. Darn it. I've been extremely busy, and I know that's an excuse, but it's true. I have two toddler boys. I don't think I need to say anything more. I can not keep up with them. Right now they are in their room. It's almost 8:30. They've been "in bed" for an hour. They've been climbing out of their cribs every day for a couple weeks now. We've been debating between keeping them IN the crib vs. changing them to non-cribs. It seems pointless to keep them in cribs when they can just climb out. But then, maybe keeping them in the cribs will deter them a little bit - maybe they'll only get out of bed 2 or 3 times instead of 100. That worked for ... um ... a few days, maybe? Then they stared getting out about 100 times. So I got rid of the cribs and put them in "non cribs." So now they slip out of bed about 1 second after I leave the room. And I'm just ignoring them. As long as they are safe, and they stay in their room, I figure if they're not going to sleep for another hour or two, at least it should be stress-free on my part rather than going up there every 2 minutes to put them back in bed, just for them to get out again as soon as their door is closed. We have been battling this at bed time and nap time for weeks, and I'm at my wit's end. Not only this, but they are figuring out how to break through the barriers we've set up for them. They break child-safety-locks. The break the crappy plastic door knob handle thingys that are supposed to make it hard to open doors. They climb over baby gates. The throw everything they can get their hands on onto the floor - food, toys, books, blankets. It's so hard to walk through the house because EVERYTHING IS ON THE FLOOR. By the time I have cleaned up one mess, they've made 5 more. Somebody please tell me it will get better. {deep breath}

Ok, that is my long-winded excuse for not blogging much lately. Also, I've been working. I'm a photographer. There, I said it. I feel weird saying it, because I didn't go to school for it, or get any kind of certificate for it, or get hired by anybody. But, I'm doing it. I'm getting paid to take pictures of people, so that makes me a photographer. And I love it. And it takes up a good amount of time, and I've been doing so much picture editing and blogging {here}, that my personal and family blog (this one) has fizzled down a little bit. But it will not die! I love this little place. So, here's to July. And maybe I'll get caught up with August before August is over.

7.23.11

{I was practicing a wedding picture, using my own ring. I like it.}

I don't even know why I took a picture of the piano. I'm sure I had a reason that day, but I've forgotten.

7.31.11

I think it's funny how animals will find a patch of sunlight to bask in. I don't blame them.

July 22nd

2011-07-29T08:48:00.000-04:00

Picture-A-Day:

Ahhh, July. So hot, kinda miserable. This summer has been particularly nasty as far as heat and humidity. Most of the country has been slammed with a massive heat wave for the last couple weeks. I think it's starting to wane, finally. Last night at 7:00 it was "only" 83 degrees. A week ago at 8:30pm it was still in the 90's. I'm afraid my poor old beast of an air conditioner won't be able to make it through the next two months.

As I mentioned in a previous post, 5 years ago in July I was about 8 months pregnant with Jayna. I remember the weather people saying that was the hottest summer ever. I think this summer might break that record. Either that or in my old age, I'm becoming less tolerant of heat and humidity. It breaks my heart a little bit to realize how much I dread being outside when the heat index is in the upper 90's. I spent my summers as a teenager at camp, and I didn't care how hot it was. I just loved summer because it meant I was at camp. Hotter weather meant water games, or more swim time in the lake. It didn't bother me a bit. But now I notice that too much time in the humidity makes me grumpy.

Ok, enough whining about the heat. The purpose of this post, and the above picture, is to point out how July redeems itself. I hate July for the heat and humidity. I thank God for air conditioning in my life. But I LOVE July for its seasonal fruit that is either impossible to find, or not nearly as good any other time of the year.

Blueberries

Peaches

Fresh Pineapple

Sweet Cherries

I buy blueberries year-round because I love them on my cereal or oatmeal for breakfast. But there is nothing like a 10-pound box of blueberries that comes from a local farm. They're big, fat, juicy, and sweet. I love the way they burst in your mouth. And fresh pineapple... there is just nothing like it. Canned pineapple can't possibly even be the same thing, it tastes nothing like fresh. I ate so much the other day I got sores in my mouth. Don't laugh, you know you've done it too.

And let's talk about sweet cherries for a minute. I can't even find them in the store until about mid-June, and then they're like $5 a pound. A regular sized bag is usually at least 2 pounds, which means I'm paying at least $10 for this bag of cherries. That's too much for my frugal blood. I wait til mid to late July when they reach their lowest price. A few years ago that used to be about $1.99/pound. Now I'm lucky to find them for $2.99, but I buy a bag or two anyway. I think it's the rarity of them that makes them so special to me. They're SO delicious, and I only get them for a couple weeks each summer, and that is usually late July. So, July, though you have been cruel this summer, and many others in the past, I want to thank you now for sweet cherries, blueberries, peaches and fresh pineapple.

July 21st

2011-07-23T12:58:00.000-04:00

I grew up in Minnesota, the Land of 10,000 Lakes. There's actually more than ten thousand lakes in MN, but that's the slogan. When we went to the beach, it was a regular sized lake - you know, bigger than a pond, but no where near the size of the Great Lakes. When I was in Europe we went swimming in a lake, and someone asked me why I was calling it a "beach." I didn't really understand the question. There's sand, lake, swimming... beach, right? Nope, they just call it a lake. A dialect thing, I guess. A "beach" is on the ocean. I guess because there are no oceans in Minnesota, we call anything a beach that has sand, and water to swim in. There's Lake Superior way up north, but there's not much for beaches up there, just a lot of rocky shores. And the water's usually too cold to swim in. It's beautiful, and I love it up there, but it's not what I'd call a beach. When I moved to Indiana, 11 years ago, I discovered Lake Michigan beaches. It's the closest thing we get to the ocean here in the center of the continent. And I don't know what makes it a "beach" exactly - there's sand, water, and swimming, just like the so-called "beaches" in Minnesota. The sand is probably coarser than the ocean's sand. And obviously even this Great Lake is much smaller than any ocean, but it might as well be an ocean, since you (usually) can't see the other side. On an extremely clear day you can actually see Chicago on the other side of the lake, but I've only seen it once in all these years. It really is pretty spectacular. But whatever it is that defines the word "beach," I love the beaches on Lake Michigan. There are several different beaches we might go to - Weko Beach, Warren Dunes (State Park), Silver Beach (where we got married), and earlier this summer we added Covert Beach to our list. They are all very similar - same side of the same lake, some further North than others. As a family, we love going to the beach. It's an all-day event, since it takes over an hour to get to any given beach along the shore. We load up our cooler, water toys, jugs of drinking water, lots of snacks, blankets, towels, and sunscreen, and head out for a day at the beach. It's one of our family highlights each summer. Before we had kids, we'd go several times in a summer. In the last 5 or 6 years we've only gone once or twice a year, but as the kids get bigger, I think we'll be able to go more often again. It was a little scarier this year with the girls, because they're getting so confident in their swimming abilities. When they were little they stayed more on the shore and play in the sand, maybe putting their feet in the water. Now that they can (almost) swim, they spent most of the day in the water, playing, splashing, practicing their underwater swimming, daring each other to go further and further from shore. It's a pretty shallow beach, so you can swim pretty far out and still touch the bottom. It made me nervous. But everybody did fantastic and had the time of their lives.

July 18th and 19th

2011-07-22T19:06:00.004-04:00

7.18.11

Sage's first "still life." Derrick brought a small sunflower in from the garden, I put it in a vase and on the dining room table, and Sage said, "I'm gonna paint this flower!" I think she did a pretty darn good job!

7.19.11

We finally moved the girls into their own room! Well, the two of them share the room, but before they were sharing the big room with the two boys. So now they're in a pink room, without any babies. And the boys have their own room, with all the toys in it. The girls loving being able to go in their room whenever they want, not having to worry about whether somebody is sleeping. And the boys can now move freely from the living room, up the stairs to their bedroom, which makes them much happier too. They've been confined to the living room since they started crawling, and they've been itching to explore more of the house, but we just haven't been ready to let them loose. Oh, and I should mention, this picture was taken before we moved the bunk beds. The first night I put the mattresses on the floor so they could sleep in there, the next morning Derrick moved the beds in.

July 16th

2011-07-19T07:00:00.000-04:00

Sunday, the beginning of this nasty heat wave, we spent several hours in the pool of our dear friends, the Kinsey's. I remember being 8 months pregnant with Jayna, 5 years ago in July. We didn't have AC in the house except a teeny window unit that kept our bedroom icy cold, but the rest of the house was hotter and more humid than outside. I pretty much spent the hottest 2 weeks of the summer either locked in the bedroom with Sage or in the Kinsey's pool. I don't know what I would have done without their hospitality at that time in my life. I know it's not much, but those people have given to so many people in times of need, whatever they have on hand to share. For me that summer it was the comfort of their pool, and it was a gift I will never forget. They've done much more for me and my family over the past 8 years or so, but this memory is strong in my mind right now. Thankfully we now have a huge BEAST of an AC window unit in the living room that keeps the whole downstairs comfortable, if not cold.

July 14-16

2011-07-18T20:30:00.000-04:00

Picture-A-Day:

7.14.11

Just want to point out all the dirt in the bottom of the tub. A minute earlier, before the dirt settled to the bottom, the water was completely brown. It's been a pretty common occurrence this summer at bath time.

7.15.11

Not much to say about this picture, just another attempt to photograph a train. Not a good one, but I need to keep trying. One of these times I'll get a great one!

7.16.11

Saturday I took Sage on a mommy-daughter date to see The Music Man at the Lerner Theater. I LOVE theater. There is nothing that can really compare to the energy and excitement of seeing a live show. And I'm trying to teach my kids to appreciate it too. Sage has had a really good time both times I've brought her to a play. I'm not quite ready to take Jayna yet, she's a little restless still, and I don't think she could hold her bladder through an entire play. But she's getting close, hopefully within the next year I'll be ready to take her. I'm excited that there's now a theater in walking distance from our house.

July 11th-13th

2011-07-18T10:23:00.001-04:00

Picture-A-Day:

7.11.11

I found this at Good Will, thought it would be a good photo prop. I didn't really like the words at the bottom (a little to cheesy for me), so I spray painted it white.

7.12.11

We have this great little ice cream shop right down the street from us. The owner is an artist, and she has a back room where she does art classes, and has live music and open mic nights. It's hard for a small business to survive in this economy. Even in a good economy it's hard, with all the big corporations taking over the world. It's hard for me to get there very often with my kids being so little, but I hope to take advantage of their delicious ice cream often this summer.

7.13.11

I met up with an "old" friend at the free spray park in Mishawaka. I met her through another friend about 7 years ago. She moved to South Bend and started having kids, and we started having kids, and life just got busy and I haven't seen her now in about 5 years. We reunited on Facebook about a year ago, and we finally took a day to get the kids together and catch up on all that has happened in the last 5 years. It was really great to see her again, she's a really wonderful person. I hope we have more chances to get together in the near future.

July 6th-10th

2011-07-13T23:06:00.000-04:00

Picture-A-Day:

7.6.11 (Happy Birthday Alyssa)

Starting off with a couple of food posts... this is me burning brats on the grill. And yes, I was on Facebook while the brats were burning on one side. Then when I went out to flip them, my neighbor called me over to tell me something, and then the other side burned. Oops! It's ok, brats taste good with a little char on them anyway.

7.7.11

I made my own cream cheese wontons. There's a Thai restaurant called Lucky's Donuts (yes, I know, it's weird). Anyway, they have the BEST cream cheese crab wontons, but they look like egg rolls. And I decided I could make them myself. This was the first try, and I didn't cook them long enough or hot enough. The 2nd time they were a bit better, but I baked them to try to be more healthy, and I'm tellin ya, next time I'm gonna fry them. It's just not the same baked.

7.8.11

Friday I took the girls (just the girls!) to a free spray park about 20 minutes away. After they got bored playing in the water they decided to climb this huge hill. There they are at the tippy top, see?

7.10.11

And silly Jayna, didn't want to watch whatever show Sage was watching, so she decided to take a nap on the floor instead of on the couch (I don't see the logic either, but that's the story I heard).

If you want to see pics from 7.11.11, click here. Our good friends had their 2nd baby on Saturday (just 12 hours after I'd been out with the Mama, and she was definitely in pre-labor at that point - probably more "in" labor than we realized!) Anyway, I had the honor of taking their baby pictures when the little guy was just 3 days old. :) I love those little peanuts, they're so tiny, and they grow SO FAST!

Review of Larry Crowne Movie - spoiler alert!

2011-07-08T09:01:00.000-04:00

You don't often go wrong with Tom Hanks. But I thought the new movie, Larry Crowne, was L-A-M-E.
And here's why...

It's supposed to be a feel-good recession-based movie about a working man who loses his job and has to find his way in the world in the midst of "tough times." It was completely unrealistic. The very beginning was touching. Larry goes to work in a retail big-box store called U-Mart. The store could represent any big retail chain. He's an excellent employee, has been there for several years, and has made Employee of the Month something like 9 times. He gets fired because he has no college education. At this point I was feeling emotional, because a year and a half ago that was us. Derrick got laid off from his job (the difference being, we knew it was coming, and Larry did not). I related to the feeling of "what do we do now?" and the process of going out looking for a new job, wondering how we're going to pay the bills. But after that point in the movie, everything just went so wonderfully for Larry, that I stopped being able to relate to it. He lived in a VERY nice house, drove a big shiny SUV. He was recently divorced and appeared to have no children. In my opinion, his house was way too nice for someone working at a retail store. He mentioned taking out a $300k loan to pay his ex-wife for her half of the house. That leads me to believe that their home is $600k. I realize that in California, that's probably fairly average, but I don't think you can afford that working at a retail store similar to Target or Home Depot. Sorry, but I just don't buy it. Maybe in California you can, but certainly not here in the midwest. Anyway, he goes to college, (again, I don't know how he can afford college without a job). He does end up foreclosing on his house but it was looked at as more of a victory than a problem. He basically hands over the papers to the banker, and says, there you go, screw you. He then moves into a VERY nice condo (at this point he's working as a cook at a diner).He makes friends with a bunch of young hip college students, aces all his classes, and in the end his teacher falls in love with him. No conflict, really. Yes he lost his job and yes he lost his house, and those were touching moments, but everything else was happy and wonderful. Having lived through a year of unemployment and many years of "tough times," as a working class family, I ended up thinking "Nope, Tom Hanks really doesn't get it. He's so far lost to Hollywood, that he has no idea what it's like for a working class American to lose their job and their house. He can't even make a realistic movie about it."

So, there you go, that's my story and I'm sticking to it. My advice: don't bother, or at least wait for video. Definitely not worth $20 at the theater.

July 1st and July 5th

2011-07-08T08:24:00.000-04:00

picture-a-day:
Ok, I unintentionally lied. I did take a few pictures on Friday of our camping trip, I totally forgot. As I mentioned in the previous post, it started thunderstorming Thursday evening, and continued to do so for most of the next 24 hours. It was not fun. We woke up to a little break in the rain on Friday morning, but dark clouds were looming. So at 8am we decided to run a few errands, since we couldn't really do anything at the campground. We had forgotten a bunch of stuff at home, so we went home to get those things. Then we went to Martin's to get donuts, then Derrick drove us through the train yard where he works. Sage and Alyssa hadn't been there yet (Alyssa still hasn't). So, we drove around and around and around looking at trains and watching the clouds. It's kind of a blur in my memory, but I think it might have rained off and on throughout the morning? We decided to take the kids to McDonald's for lunch, so they could run around in the play land. So much for vacation, huh? Wake up the first morning and go run errands and take the kids to McDonalds - blah. Thankfully, it cleared up around supper time Friday evening and the rest of the weekend was perfect.

7.1.11

7.5.11

And this is the basil I got from the farm. Our usual pick up day is Friday, but since we were "on vacation" I had to wait til Tuesday to get mine. I didn't want the basil to go bad before I was able to use it, so I decided to hang it to dry. I love fresh basil, but I have to admit, I'm having a hard time using everything I get from the farm. I'm not complaining, I just need to get more used to it. I'm kind of in a routine of what I'm used to buying and making, and I need to get out of that rut.

July 1-4

2011-07-05T09:51:00.000-04:00

We went camping over the holiday weekend. I did not take a single picture. I don't know, I felt burned out on picture taking. Besides that, we were pretty waterlogged most of the weekend. It thunderstormed for the first 24 hours, and then we spent the rest of the weekend at the pool, mostly. I have a small point-and-shoot camera that I really should use for times like this, but for some dumb reason I didn't think of it until the weekend was over. I even had it with me! I wouldn't have minded taking that little thing to the pool or carrying it around the campground to snap pictures. I was just thinking that I didn't want to lug my big expensive camera all over the place. I guess that's the problem with trying to make photography a "job." I don't want to "work" when I'm on vacation! A lot of the time I can't resist the draw of the camera. I feel almost addicted to taking pictures. I see something that makes me smile or feel happy, and I grab my camera. But this weekend, I just kept thinking "I don't feel like taking any pictures." So... major fail... but I'm ok with it. I'll start fresh today. And next time I'll remember the small camera, and use that as an escape from my "job" so I can still take pics of special family events without feeling like I'm "working."

June 21-27

2011-06-29T07:19:00.000-04:00

Picture-A-Day:

6.21.11

We joined a CSA this year (click here for more info on what a CSA is). This is my first share pick up! I've been wanting to join one for years, but there was never one close enough to home. I read an article in the paper early in the spring about Rise Up Farms, which is in Elkhart! This is their 2nd season running. And the best part is, they have a pick-up location just down the road from our house. It was so exciting to unload all my veggies, they smelled so earthy and fresh. It's a challenge to use only these vegetables each week, but it is a week's worth, so I'm determined to buy as little from the grocery store as possible.

6.22.11

Oh my heavens, Derrick took Sage for a ride on his motorcycle. She loved it. She's been on 2 rides now, and she's hooked. Every nice days she says "It's a really nice day for a motorcycle ride, isn't it Daddy?"

6.23.11

I have no good story to go with this one, just Daddy playing "three-headed monster" with his boys.

6.25.11

This is my garden after 9 hours of work (I worked 6 hours on Saturday and my neighbor helped me for about 3 of those hours). We got most of the jungle cleared out. For the past couple years the boys have been too small and demanding for me to get much work done in the garden. This year they're able to piddle around the yard all day while I work. The back left corner is what's left of the jungle. The front right corner where you see green is where Derrick dumped the grass clippings - it helps keep the weeds down. It doesn't keep them down completely, but it helps a lot. I also bought a weeding hoe and some Preen which is supposedly organic weed stopper. I prefer to be a purist, but I just can't keep ahead of the weeds on my own.

6.26.11

I found this beautiful sage growing under my porch! It was sticking out from under the bottom stair. I had a pot of sage a couple years ago, and I figure it must have seeded. So I pulled these and hung them from the clothes line to dry.

6.27.11

And this, my friends, is wild spinach. Never heard of it, you say? I hadn't either until I got a bundle of it from the farm. They said "It's wild spinach. It grows like a weed." I have a TON of it in my garden (that jungle in the back corner? mostly wild spinach!). I "did a Google search" and found that it's even more vitamin packed than "regular" spinach, and apparently you don't even have to tend it because all these years I've been throwing it in the compost with the weeds. I have so much of it, I'm not sure what to do with it all. I read that it could be dried and stored, so I'm trying that. So if anybody wants some wild spinach - it tastes much like regular spinach. You can use it in a salad, cook it into spaghetti sauce, or whatever you would do with spinach. I will share of my abundance.
I love growing season. It's so satisfying and fulfilling to eat from my own garden. And I also really love the fresh produce that comes from the farm just a couple miles away.

June 17-20

2011-06-27T21:44:00.000-04:00

Picture-A-Day:

On Thursday the 16th we spent the day driving to Minnesota. We got off to a rough start, having to run some errands and then stop back home again for something we forgot, then while we were home everyone had to go potty again... but finally, we were on the road. There was construction on I-90 from Gary to Rockford, which was a big pain. It was a long exhausting 10 hour drive with young'uns. And I got zero pictures that day.

The purpose of the trip was a wedding of a close family friend who I have known since she was about 6 months old. Her name is Kristen, and my mom used to babysit her. I was probably 7 when she started coming over to our house. She and my baby brother are less than 2 months apart, so they were two little peas in a pod. We have endless pictures of the two of them, almost like twins, always together. When I was in jr. high or high school I started babysitting her in the summers when there was no school, along with my brothers. To me she was like a little sister. I don't know if I left home first, or if she got too old for a babysitter. Maybe both happened at the same time. But after that, even though our families stayed close, Kristen and I didn't stay in touch too much.

Which is why I didn't expect to get very emotional at her WEDDING. But I did! I cried off and on through the whole thing. Ever since my own wedding, I tend to get a little emotional at weddings, but holy cow, this one really got me for some reason. At the end of the ceremony they had one of those cool slideshows where they show pictures of the bride and groom from birth, and all through their growing up years, and then at the end they show all the pics of them together. I really like those. At about the 3rd picture in Kristen's sequence, I said "I remember that Kristen." And I was just a flowing fountain. I can't explain it, except to say, that it was like watching my baby sister get married. It was a beautiful wedding. It was the first time I'd ever met her husband. Everyone says he's a great guy, so I take their word for it. The reception was a blast. It's not often that Derrick and I get a chance to really let loose and party without kids around. In fact, I think weddings are the only time we ever dance like that. And only if we don't have kids with us. (another round of applause for my cousin Mindy for watching the 5 little ones for us).

I didn't bring my camera to the wedding. I wanted to fully experience it, and not be hiding behind the lens and seeing everything from a photographer's point of view. That's why she hired a photographer! So, no pics from the wedding. But I have some great pics of the rest of the weekend. The whole Ulasich clan was in town, so we took advantage and had a mini-vacation.

6.17.11

Friday morning we took the kids to play the playground at my old elementary school. It's changed several times over since I went there, but the memories flooded back none the less. It's always fun to see how tiny your old elementary school looks once you grow up.

6.18.11

Saturday we stopped in Stillwater on our way to Taylor's Falls. Both towns are on the edge of the MN/WI state line. This pic is of my boys and my brother's boy watching the St. Croix river. Standing in MN, looking at WI.

6.19.11

Sunday we did some hiking at Interstate State Park. I, my sister-in-law, and my other brother's girlfriend are all photographers (at varying levels of professionalism), and at one point in the day the three guys (Derrick, Jacob, and Andrew) all ended up with the camera's. It was a funny moment when we realized it, and they all started taking pictures of each other taking pictures. So this is Derrick taking a picture of Jake and Andrew taking pictures of each other.

6.20.11

And, since this is the only pic I took on Monday, this is what you get. We were all pooped after a long, fun weekend.
Stay tuned, I have some fun ones for this week.

June 13th and 15th

2011-06-23T07:47:00.000-04:00

6.13.11

My first strawberry harvest of the season! This is about all I get every few days. I can't seem to get to them before the bugs and/or birds eat them. :/ Oh well, they're really good anyway!

6.15.11

Jayna lost her first tooth! I was probably just as excited as she was. I can remember waking up the morning after losing a tooth, and being so excited to check and see what the tooth fairy brought me! She came downstairs that morning holding this shiny gold dollar! Sage is a little distressed because she hasn't lost a tooth yet, and she's a year and a half older. I think she's working extra hard at wiggling her loose ones.

June 11th

2011-06-15T19:06:00.000-04:00

Here is phase 1 of our morning at the beach. I have more, but this is as far as I've gotten in the editing. I like these so much, I'm thinking about framing some of them.

June 1st

2011-06-15T16:44:00.000-04:00

(it seems I never published this post?)
Picture-A-Day:

On Wednesday there was an award's assembly at Sage's school, and Sage got 2 awards! One was for coming in 3rd place in the 75 yard dash (miss long legs!), and the other was for being responsible. Each teacher in the school got to choose two students in their class to receive the award, and Sage was one of them. I was so proud of her. Oh, and just to brag a little bit more... She brought her report card home, and had the equivilant of STRAIGHT A's (4's and E's at this school). I know it's only Kindergarten, but still. I'm beaming. She's a wonderful little girl. And she's growing into a wonderful big girl.

June 10th

2011-06-14T21:38:00.000-04:00

First night (and morning) of camping:

June 6-8

2011-06-14T20:27:00.000-04:00

Picture-A-Day:

(I skipped June 5th, no pics that day).

6.6.11

This is what happens when you ask your kids to fold towels... they made these teeny little piles all over the living room floor. It was cute. But after that I started instructing them to pile towels up on the coffee table. The floor's too dirty for clean towels!

6.7.11

The bottom of my computer screen: 95 degrees. Blach. I really hate to complain about the heat when we had such a cold and rainy spring, and everyone (including me) was complaining about the cold and wishing it was warmer. But sheesh, it didn't have to jump from 35 to 95 in a month. A nice gentle Spring would have been nice. Ah well, "mother nature" never really cares about what we would like, does she? I can't complain now though, we've had a beautiful week of sunshine and highs in the 70's which is perfect for me.

6.8.11

School's out now, and after that scorching hot day, I let the girls sleep in the air-conditioned living room on the pull-out couch. It's really not a big deal for me to do, but it's SO MUCH FUN for them, they think it's such a treat.

I don't have any pics from June 9th, and the 10th-12th we were camping, so my next post will hopefully be camping pictures! I'm really excited to edit the pics of the kids on the beach. We had such a wonderful time.

June 1-4

2011-06-13T21:44:00.001-04:00

Hi! It's been a while, huh? I have like 2 weeks worth of pic-a-day's to catch up on. I'm not gonna do it all at once. We have been crazy busy, I can't even believe it. Here is a list of some of our projects and things that have been keeping us busy:

*painting the house
*remodeling one bedroom
*Sage's birthday - my first "kid party"!
*Alyssa's cheer competition
*end of the school year - papers, awards ceremonies, parties, etc.
*camping with our church family

There is much more coming up this month! We are still working on the first two on that list, and we have many more activities to come this month.

6.1.11 - trying to get 4 kids to pose for a picture

6.3.11 - Sage's birthday party

As I said before, this was my first "kid party." I have never had any desire to throw all-out birthday parties for my kids. I don't know why. I like having adult parties, but they're easy. All you have to do is have lots of food and drinks, and clean your house. For kid parties you also have to PLAN ACTIVITIES! I'm just not good at that. For Alyssa's birthday parties in the past we've done easy things like roller skating, or a water park - something that provides the entertainment so I don't have to! So, I tried to come up with easy activities - I thought water games would be perfect. We had water balloons, a slip 'n slide, a couple funky sprinklers. I ordered an awesome cake from a friend who does awesome cakes, and I got Little Cesar's pizza. I didn't do party favors or send the kids home with bags of candy and crappy toys. I didn't do a pinata, or any kind of craft or anything that took a lot of prep time (the water balloons took up the most time to prepare, and Derrick did that). But holy cow, even with easy low-prep activities and food, that party totally kicked my butt. I spent all day getting ready for it, and all evening cleaning up, and I was totally frazzled and exhausted by the end of it. Everything went well, the kids had fun, and most important of all, Sage was happy and had a really great time.All 7 birthdays in our family are between April and October, so this is a busy season. The boys aren't old enough to know better yet, but in a few years... oh boy.

6.4.11 - Alyssa's cheer competition

Alyssa was on a Young Champions cheer leading team this past semester. She had a really fun time, and their team took 2nd place in the competition! We were really proud of them (and her), and even though it was hot and steamy in the Goshen College rec center, it was actually a lot of fun to watch the teams compete.

We went camping this past weekend, and I have some really great pics of the kids on the beach, but... I want to do some editing, and I want to get caught up, so you'll have to wait a bit to see them. Ha ha, tease.

May 28-31

2011-06-03T07:32:00.001-04:00

Picture-A-Day:

It's been a fun-filled, playing outside, kind of week. The weather has been mostly beautiful, flowers are in bloom, and summer is upon us.

5.28.11

Jayna got these flowers from our homeless neighbor. We have a homeless neighbor, and the kids LOVE him. That might seem weird. Maybe it is weird. But really, he seems just like any other neighbor, only he doesn't have his own house. I think sometimes he stays at the shelter. Right now he's staying with a friend down the street. He is a childhood friend of our next door neighbor, so he's there a LOT, hanging out in their backyard when the weather's nice. He walks around town a lot. He's really goofy and funny with the kids, and they adore him. And they know he's homeless, and they know that he gets in trouble sometimes (last summer he spent a few months in jail for public intoxication), and they still love him. We're very careful about it - their conversations are always "over the fence," and he only ever comes in our yard when adults are present. And that's only happened a couple times. I think it is a GREAT life lesson for the kids to have an up-close friendship with a "homeless drunk," to give them an understanding that he's a REAL PERSON, not just a "bum." While it may seem weird, and yes we have to be careful about it, I think it's really awesome.

5.29.11

Mmmm, barbeque chicken!

5.30.11

The girls were feeling posey. I told Jayna to "look happy," and she threw her arms up like this. SO CUTE!

5.31.11

The boys were sitting here playing together and being so cute. By the time I came back with the camera, this is what I saw. I think J either hit T, or took a toy from him or something, but they were not happy anymore.

Happy 6th Birthday!

2011-06-01T11:47:00.000-04:00

I can't believe how fast the time has gone. I can remember like it was yesterday, driving myself to the hospital on May 31st because I hadn't felt her move in about 6 hours. Since she was 2 weeks past her due date, they kept me and induced me at about 4am the next morning. After giving birth, I felt like super woman. I was obviously exhausted and sapped of strength, but I felt like I could do anything after accomplishing that feat.
She's almost done with Kindergarten, she can read like crazy, and we are so proud of the beautiful young lady she is becoming. Happy Birthday Sage!

June 1st, 2005

(I love this picture)

1st Birthday

2nd Birthday

(actually, a couple days after. bad mom can't find pics of the 2nd birthday!)

3rd Birthday

4th Birthday

5th Birthday

Today!

May 27th

2011-05-28T10:08:00.000-04:00

Picture-A-Day:
Eight loaves of bread dough, headed to the freezer. I LOVE homemade bread. I don't have a bread machine, so I make it by hand. It's a lot of work. It takes up a whole morning or afternoon. I usually make 4 loaves at a time, but that only lasts a couple weeks, and then by the time we run out it takes a while before I get a chance to make more. So this time I made 8 loaves. I had to use 2 bowls - I basically used my recipe for 4 loaves, and did it twice. One batch is regular whole wheat, and the other is white whole wheat. I think it was more time-efficient, because I only had to get the ingredients and dishes out once, and only had to wash the dishes once. It took a little extra time to measure and pour everything twice, and I had to knead for 20 minutes instead of 10 (that was tough!), but I think overall, it's worth making 8 loaves at a time. I'm not sure I could do any more than that, but that should be a month's worth of bread.

May 26th

2011-05-28T08:54:00.000-04:00

Picture-A-Day:
We made smoothies. Sage didn't realize how thick it was until it dumped onto her face. We all laughed. :)

May 20-24

2011-05-24T21:44:00.000-04:00

Picture-A-Day:

(once again, in reverse order. don't know why blogger does that).

5.24.11. lunch outside! I love it because I don't have to clean it up!

ok, this is also from the 24th, but it works out because I don't have one from the 23rd. I couldn't resist. this girl is a reading and writing machine.

5.22.11. Not a great picture. This is pretty much all the storm we got the night the tornado took out part of North Minneapolis (not to mention that town in MO.)

5.21.11. A bucket of compost taken straight from our compost bin, and poured into the garden. LOVE IT!

5.20.11. Alyssa and her friends taking over the kitchen. Actually, this was cool, they were all helping her get the dishes done because it was her chore for the day.

I can't help but be proud that she has black, white, and Mexican friends all together at the same time.

One thing I love about raising my kids in "the hood," is they are so used to seeing multi-colors, that they don't think anything about it. They're just people - which is how it should be.

A Rant

2011-05-24T15:30:00.001-04:00

Ok, something's been bothering me and I feel like I need to get it off my chest. I'm kind of afraid to be honest about this because I think I might seem snobby and rude.

Have you ever been at the grocery store, only buying one or two items, and gotten in line behind someone with a SUPER full cart? Don't you appreciate it when that person lets you go in front of them because you'll probably be in your car pulling out of the parking lot by the time they get their cart unloaded? It's kind of a common courtesy, right? But is it the law? I mean, is it an unbreakable social rule?

I am usually the one with the full cart. I often let someone go ahead of me if they only have a couple things. But sometimes when I'm standing in line the person behind me hovers. Has this ever happened to you? You're standing in line, when suddenly the line is going sideways? The person behind you is now next to you? I mean, REALLY next to you. Like, popping your bubble, next-to-you. Like they're trying to "subtly" give you the hint that you should let them go ahead, but they're too "polite" to ask? Sorry folks, but this annoys me. It has happened to me a surprising number of times. Usually it's at Aldi. The lines are sometimes long there, but they go fast. I can have $100 worth of food in my cart, and it only takes a minute or two for me to check out, since I have to do my own bagging. Also, now that I'm on the other side of the fence (the one with the full cart), I have a defense. I am shopping for 7 people. I am a busy woman and my time is valuable. Probably everyone would say that they're busy and their time is valuable, so why should I have to let someone go ahead of me just because they have less items in their cart than I do? Sometimes I have to hurry up and get home before my kids get home from school. Sometimes I have to wait behind others with full carts. Do I HAVE to let someone go ahead of me? Am I a big jerk if I don't? Because the "hover-ers" make me feel like a jerk, giving me dirty looks like I did something rude to them. I got in line first. It's my turn. Is that rude of me? And what is the rule on how many items the person behind me should have in order for me to let them go ahead? Less than me? I hope not because then I'd never get a turn. I'd be letting everyone ahead of me! Is it less than 10? Less than 5?

Here's my other situation. This happened the last time I was at Aldi. I had already started unloading my cart before I looked behind me and realized that the person behind me had a significantly smaller cart-load than I did. I think she had more than 10 items, though (I didn't count them), it's not like she had only 1 thing. I noticed her noticing me looking at her cart. She gave me "the look." The look that says "Let me go first, you selfish bitch!" I didn't let her go first. My reasoning? I'd already started unloading. They're really fast at Aldi. She was giving me a dirty look. Anyway, I got about half way done unloading my cart, and she put the divider up - you know, the little plastic bar you use to mark the end of one person's load and the beginning of the next. She gave me 2-3 feet of space on the counter, but it wasn't enough. And by the time I filled up the space she left me, she had totally filled up the rest of the counter with her stuff. I was SO ANNOYED. I started stacking bags of chips on top of my other groceries that were already on the counter, and still I had things on the bottom of my cart. I just wheeled them around to the checker so she could scan them straight from the cart. I thought that lady was really rude, and that's what prompted me to write this.

I don't want to mis-represent myself. As I said already, I do sometimes offer to let someone go ahead of me. If I have a very full cart, and the person behind me has only a few things. I believe it is a "common courtesy." But I also think it's rude to hover, and it should be viewed as a courtesy, not an expectation. I've noticed two particular demographics of people who are usually the culprits (the above mentioned lady didn't fit either of them, ironically). Am I wrong? I'd like to know what you all think. Be honest, it won't hurt my feelings.

May 10th - 19th

2011-05-20T10:13:00.000-04:00

Picture-A-Day:

Ok, I've been in a bit of a creative funk. I'm feeling like everything in my life is repetitive (and it probably is), and there's nothing to take a picture of that I haven't already done/written about. Also we've been super busy, so maybe I just haven't had time or energy to be creative and look for unique and interesting things.

5.10.11 don't they look alike? they're so pretty.

5.13.11. Little J enjoying a summery day.

5.15.11. Sunday afternoon. Yep, she's reading chapter books.

5.19.11. Jayna with her pre school teacher on the last day.

5.19.11. Alyssa's choir concert, they sounded so great!

Also, this past week we've been painting our house. I could have taken a picture of that, but I don't want to get my camera out when I'm all full of paint. We painted by hand for a while - it took me like 3 hours to do a tiny little section. So we bought a refurbished paint sprayer we found on Ebay for $50. It's much faster. Hopefully we'll get that all done in the next couple weeks.

On Tuesday I drove little J down to Indy to see a developmental pediatric specialist to talk about his delays. He was born premature, and has always been a little delayed in reaching his milestones. It was a long tedious day - 4 hour drive to the clinic, 2 hour appointment, 4 hour drive home. But I felt it was worth it. The doctor confirmed everything we already knew (which for me is a relief that I'm not making a big deal out of nothing). She said he has significant delays, but they're mild, which is good. And even though he's a bit behind, he's progressing, which is also good. She ordered some tests, and she also recommended additional speech therapy (he's already getting developmental therapy, focusing on speech). I feel nervous about the tests. It's like I'm standing on a bridge and have no idea what's on the other side. We might be entering into a whole new world of parenting ("special needs"). What if all of our tried and true methods don't work for him? But, I know it'll be ok. No matter what the outcome, we love that little guy so much, and the true desire of our hearts is for him to have the most successful life possible. And just as if he were our biological child, I feel that our job is to give him every possible benefit that will add to his success.

A Day In Pictures

2011-05-08T20:37:00.000-04:00

Ever wonder what a Stay-At-Home-Mom does all day? Probably not, since a lot of my readers ARE SAHM's, but that's ok. I don't know why, but for some reason I felt compelled to record my little tasks throughout the day. Maybe just to make myself realize just how productive I really am, even though sometimes at the end of the day it feels like I worked all day, but you can't tell by looking at my house. So, here you go:

breakfast

get dressed

take kids for walk to YMCA, work out, come home

lunch

a little laundry

fill/run/empty/fill/run/empty

my little helper!

dipes and wipes... too many times a day

upstairs for naps

peek-a-boo, and nighty-night!

(I have a laundry fairy - sometimes I wake up in the morning and the laundry is all folded!)

clean out fridge to make room for more!


finish up grocery list (yes, mine's typed, that way I don't have to write it	every week.

put groceries away

start dinner

can you tell which is the salad, and which is the compost?

what a cutie!

dinner time!

bath time!

pajama time (there's my little helper again)

vacuum

and, finish off the night with a nice bowl of popcorn and a movie.

Phew, I'm tired again just thinking about that day. That was a typical day in that it was not typical. But this day wasn't extra busy, or extra laid back. It was pretty typical in that regard. Every day is a little the same and a little different. I go to the Y about twice a week (I'd like to go more, but I'd have to sacrifice something else in my life, and this is where my priorities lie right now). Since it's been nicer outside I've been trying to take the kids for walks more. I grocery shop every other Friday. Some days we're home most of the day, some days we have appointments, some days I have lots of errands to run, some days I have lots of phone calls to make.

Every day I feed the kids, get the girls off to school, change diapers, wipe messy faces, run the dishwasher twice, and a mess of other things. On this day I sat outside and read my book while I waited for the water to boil for the spaghetti. I also laid down for about 40 minutes after I got home from grocery shopping. So, it's not like I don't have any breaks. But I stay busy. And I'd like to say I love every minute of it, but I really hate making phone calls. And I'm not a fan of doctor appointments. But I do love my family, and I'm thankful that I get to be the one to raise my kids.

May 3rd - 8th

2011-05-08T20:05:00.000-04:00

Picture-A-Day:

(going backwards)

5.8.11 - Mother's Day breakfast in bed (after it's all gone)

5.7.11. Girls in the bouncy house

5.6.11. Both of them making the same face. Jayna wouldn't look at the camera though.

5.5.11. My strawberry patch I built into the corner of the garden.

5.4.11. Found these onions while pulling weeds in the garden. They were kinda mushy. :/

5.3.11. Jayna doing "work" because she and Sage were in trouble.

dirt

2011-05-05T19:13:00.000-04:00

(look closely at the hair)

(sorry I forgot to flip the pictures before I uploaded them)

April 26th-May 2nd

2011-05-03T12:46:00.000-04:00

Picture-A-Day:

I did really bad this past week. I have a bunch of days with no pictures. Part of the problem is that my phone is completely dead. Sometimes if I don't have my camera with me, I take a picture with my phone. So those are all gone. My son, Little T, decided it would make a great bath toy, and by the time I realized it, it was too late. I've tried several tricks for drying out phones, to no avail. I tried the bowl of rice, the slice of bread in a baggie, laying it out in the sun... nothing. So, hopefully this afternoon I'll be getting a new one. I hope to get the same phone, because I really liked it. And it was only $50.

Tuesday. 4.26.11. - no picture. and absolutely no recollection of anything that happened. Hey, it was a whole week ago, you can't expect me to remember back that far. My short-term memory is getting pretty bad. Should I be worried?

Wednesday. 4.27.11. We dyed 18 eggs for Easter. Now we get to eat them! I love how this one got all speckled. :)

Thursday. 4.28.11. Again, no picture. I'm pretty sure this was the day I took a picture of my bulb garden with my phone. About 3 years ago I bought a variety pack of 100 bulbs from Aldi. The first couple years the flowers bloomed, they were kinda scanty. They all bloom at different times, one after the other. I was kind of hoping to have a full garden full of colors, but it didn't really work out too well. But this year, I guess the bulbs had spread and the garden's been going long enough, it's been looking really beautiful. The daffodils came in, then the grape hyacinth, then the tulips. And they were all there together - yellow, purple, and red/pink/yellow/orange. Click here for a similar pic I took of that garden (if you haven't seen it already).

Friday. 4.29.11. A beautiful day, here are the boys trying out their new shades that Grandma got them. They think they're pretty spiffy!

Saturday. 4.30.11. Ok, Saturday's picture is trapped in Derrick's phone. I sent it to my phone, hoping it'll be waiting for me when I get my new phone. But I can't get to it now, since my phone is dead. And I'm sure there's another way to get it from his phone to the internet, but I don't feel like taking the time to figure it out.. So, that one will be on a separate post.

Sunday. 5.1.11. This is my friend Ashley and her little family. They just had a baby a couple weeks ago, and I had the privilege of taking family pictures for them. I actually took this on Friday, but I'm posting it for Sunday because I spent a good part of Sunday evening editing. I have recently fallen in love with Picnik. It's a photo editing tool that you use online, but save the images back onto the computer. It's similar to Photoshop in features (maybe not QUITE as high-tech, but it's got some really neat functions), and it's MUCH more user-friendly than PS. I will be posting some of my faves from that shoot on my photography website as soon as they're all done. It's taking me a little longer because I'm still getting to know Picnik and all it's features. As I get more fluent in it, I'm sure the editing process will be a bit smoother.

Monday. 5.2.11. Yes, this duct tape on a diaper. Holy moly, people, we have 2 toddlers who are obsessed with taking their diapers off! For the past week we have gotten them up in the morning, and after naps in the afternoon, naked and soaked in their beds. What is UP??? We tried putting the diapers on backwards, but since there seems to be more filling in the front, there is still major leakage, even if the diapers stay on. Last night we tried the duct tape, and had the same problem. The diapers were even on the right way (because of the filling issue), but still, somehow, they both ended up soaked. I'm not sure what to do, but maybe bigger diapers for night time, plus the duct tape... They take their diapers off during the day too, and I try to put them on the potty every time they do that, thinking maybe the diaper-removal-obsession is a sign of being ready for potty training. I think I'm going to have to find some one-piece summer clothes so they won't be able to pull their pants down. Crazy boys.

And, that's all I have for now. This was kind of a long one, so thanks for sticking it out, if you've made it all the way here.

Peace. Love. Serve. (I'm thinking about making that my life motto.)

Easter Festivities

2011-04-27T14:37:00.000-04:00

coloring eggs (the looks of excitement are posed)

egg hunt on Saturday

easter morning

found one!

awesome husband, cleaning the kitchen

Wii bowling

Grandma! Grandma! Grandma! (chanting)

April 25th

2011-04-27T12:44:00.000-04:00

Picture-A-Day:

Monday. 4.25.11. Two years ago on this day, this little boy was born, unbeknownst to us. Three days later we would get a phone call asking us to come get him from the hospital the following day. It didn't take long for us to fall in love with that precious 4-and-a-half pound little baby. And now we can't imagine our family without him. Happy Birthday, little guy, we love you!

{And as a special treat, he peed on the potty on his birthday! And again today! We may or may not be onto something here. You never know... sometimes they get excited about it for a few days, then it gets old. Finger's crossed!}

April 21st-24th

2011-04-25T15:37:00.000-04:00

Picture-A-Day:

Thursday. 4.21.11. Mmmm... still really enjoying the espresso maker Derrick got me for my birthday. I was pretty happy he gave it to me early, so I had my technique perfected in time for a party-filled weekend. This is an iced latte I made on Thursday when it was nice and sunny outside.

Friday. 4.22.11. Green potatoes??? I got out this bag of potatoes and started washing them, to find that the skins were all green! We googled "green potatoes," and found out they're supposedly poisonous. I guess you'd have to ingest a LOT of the green stuff to be affected, but we didn't risk it. We threw them out, then had to run to the store to get new potatoes. Turns out the green tint on the skin is caused by exposure to light. Guess that's why you're supposed to store potatoes in the basement. I had them out on the kitchen counter.

Saturday. 4.23.11. This is my dad on Derrick's new motorcycle. He got the bike a few weeks ago, but the weather's been so crappy, he's hardly had a chance to ride it. My dad used to be a biker-guy, but in all my life, this is the first time I've ever seen him on one!

Sunday. 4.24.11. Easter. My 33rd birthday. I usually have yellow cake with chocolate frosting and sprinkles for my birthday. I decided I wanted cheesecake this year. I LOVE cheesecake! I found this variety pack at GFS for $9.99! I thought that was a total steal. I'll be back for more, I promise you that. Also I did some photo editing on "picnik." Pretty cool, if I do say so myself. Maybe I could make this one into a birthday card?

We had a VERY busy weekend, took LOTS of pictures, and I will be sharing more soon.

April 19th & 20th

2011-04-23T22:06:00.000-04:00

Picture-A-Day:

Tuesday. 4.19.11. Family Game Night! It's been a long time since we've done one of these. It's hard to have family game nights when most of the family is under age 5. But, they're getting older, and they did really awesome at this Memory game!

Wednesday. 4.20.11. Dying Easter eggs. Always a fun family tradition. I'm super cheap about it (big surprise there, right?) I drop a few drops of food coloring into water with a few Tablespoons of vinegar. That's it. To make them fancy, we color designs on the eggs with crayons, and the dye doesn't stick to the crayon, so the designs really stand out. I don't spend a dime (except on an extra couple dozen eggs).

April 17th & 18th

2011-04-18T15:52:00.000-04:00

Picture-A-Day:

Sunday. 4.17.11. This picture has 2 stories.

#1 - I've been brewing my own iced tea. Still on my journey of quitting pop - I've been "pop sober" for almost 6 months now. And I LOVE iced tea, but I really love herbal tea. So I've been buying these variety packs of Celestial Seasonings (always my favorite teas), flavored with different fruit flavors - blueberry, raspberry, cherry, mixed berry, and peach. I brew a pitcher about once every 2-3 days, depending on how much I drink. It's caffeine free and sugar free (I add a heaping tablespoon of Splenda to sweeten a glass), and full of all kinds of fruity-herbal goodness.

#2 - the Jail House Brewing company is a beer brewery that Derrick visited while he was in GA. He even got to name one of their beers! All their beer names follow the "Jail House" theme, and he threw out an idea, and they loved it and named a beer with it, but darn it I can't remember what it was. I want to say Incarceration. But I can't find it on their website either.

Monday. 4.18.11. This is what we woke up to today. They were predicting 1-3 inches of snow. When I first woke up it was just raining, so I was relieved. Then within an hour the rain started turning into big fat snow. If you click on this pic to enlarge it, you can really see the fat, snowy raindrops, it's kinda cool, actually. Thankfully, by 11:00 it had turned back into rain and the snow was all gone.

April 14th-16th

2011-04-17T14:17:00.000-04:00

Picture-A-Day:

Thursday. 4.14.11. Found this little nest in the yard under our big tree. :( hope everyone's alright.

Friday. 4.15.11. Oops. No pictures from Friday. I will tell you, the most exciting thing we did was watch the movie Despicable Me. Very cute, funny, heart warming movie. I think I even cried a little at the end.

Saturday. 4.16.11. You may remember back in the fall I shared about a music program at Jayna's preschool. Well, Saturday morning they had another little sing-along at Goshen College. These things are so much fun. I think it's so neat, this college music department has world-renowned artists performing there, and then they put on this wonderful program for local kids in the Head Start program. I am just so impressed with it. Anyway, this is Jayna having a bad attitude, not wanting to go onstage with the other kids.

April 13th

2011-04-13T20:59:00.000-04:00

Picture-A-Day:
I'm doing a few pictures today because I like them.
We started our garden today!
Still need to get the actual garden ready for planting, but we got a bunch of seeds potted, anyway.

April 11th & 12th

2011-04-12T21:57:00.000-04:00

Picture-A-Day:

Monday. 4.11.11. Remember these? Old fashioned floppy disks? These aren't even the OLD old fashioned ones. These are the "small" floppy disks that aren't really floppy because they're encased in a plastic shell. I found these in a back corner of my desk. I spent the afternoon clearing off my desk to make way for a *different* desk (not new). These were from college years and beyond. I found one with my old Mail Center number on it. I suppose it was mostly papers, journals. The yellow-ish box is a little disk-holder that the college gave everyone. Nowadays they give everyone a laptop. I just realized it's been 15 years since I graduated high school. My entire childhood (including college) happened in the 1900's. Sounds historical, doesn't it? I threw some of the data stuff away, but kept my written work, even though I can't access it. Someday when I'm long gone it will be like a time capsule. It's probably a time capsule now. Sheesh.

Tuesday. 4.12.11. The changing of the seasons means each of the Eubanks kids needs a whole new wardrobe. All 5 of them. Talk about expensive! Tonight we went to Target to get sandals for 4 out of our 5 kids. I think this was our 3rd trip to Target in the past month. The first time it was track clothes/shoes for Alyssa (that's not even summer, that's just an extra curricular!) The second time was for swimsuits for Sage and Jayna, and Alyssa got a pair of shoes and maybe some other things. And then tonight. Of course, you go for "swimsuits" and you end up buying half of Target while you're there.
Alyssa, being the oldest, doesn't have any hand-me-downs. I don't think she would wear them anyway, she's become so particular about what she'll wear. Then since there's such a big gap between her and Sage, I don't save Alyssa's clothes (though I'm starting to wish I had now!) So Sage doesn't really get hand-me-down's either. But fortunately, her birthday is at the beginning of summer, so that's a good opportunity for her to get some new clothes. Jayna is 15 months behind Sage, so she gets a LOT of hand-me-down's. So far, she doesn't mind. This summer, for the first time, Jayna is smaller than Sage was LAST summer, so Sage's last-summer-clothes don't fit Jayna. (didja follow that?) So for the first time in her life, Jayna does not have enough hand-me-down's to get her through the season. She hardly has any summer clothes. And unfortunately, Sage has continued to grow, so her last-summer-clothes are now too small for her.
And since our last two are boys, and the same size... no hand-me-downs for them either. WITH FIVE KIDS, DON'T YOU THINK WE'D HAVE PLENTY OF HAND-ME-DOWN'S???

When the girls were babies and toddlers I pretty much bought all their clothes and shoes at thrift stores. It works great for babies, since they grow so fast they usually don't get to wear their clothes too much - so the second hand clothes are still in really great shape. Then somewhere around age 3 they turn into falling-down-dirt-machines! If I buy them second hand clothes, they're worn through or completely stained within a month. It's kind of ok, I figure if they make it through the summer, it's all good, right? Well, now that the girls are all in school, I don't really like the idea of sending them to school in old stained-up, ratty clothes. I am by no means a clothing snob. I actually really don't like being a walking advertisement for clothing compaines. But I figure if I buy a dress for Sage for $10 at Target (versus $2 at Goodwill), since it's starting off new, it just might be ok by the end of the summer. And then the following summer Jayna might be able to wear it, and it still might be ok by the end of the summer. And with shoes - so many times I have bought a pair of junky $5 shoes from the dollar store or something, and BOOM, 3 days later, they look they've been playing in the yard for a year. Or they fall apart. Don't get me wrong. I still frequent Goodwill. I just don't often find exactly what I'm looking for. I still buy a lot there for the boys - they're still young enough to go through clothes faster than they wear out. So, here I am, trying to find balance between buying cheap junk (you get what you pay for), and paying more for decent clothes. For 5 kids. I really didn't know that kids would be so expensive. Even though everyone says it all the time. I guess I thought they were exaggerating.
Thanks for reading (if you're still here), tonight was really a rant.

April 5th-10th

2011-04-11T09:15:00.000-04:00

Picture-A-Day:

Spring Break

Tuesday. 4.5.11. Sage and Jayna did a gymnastics camp at the Y. They had a blast, but after 2.5 hours of tumbling and jumping and flipping, they were totally exhausted. This is Jayna in her little leotard.

Wednesday. 4.6.11. We had a playdate with our friends who live in Michigan. We used to do playdates with them every week, but since the kids have been in school it's gotten harder to get together. Last time we got together it was October! So we went to visit them, and got to meet their adorable little chicks!

Thursday. 4.7.11. We took the kids to CiCi's Pizza for dinner. I didn't have to make dinner 3 nights in a row! It was heaven. I wish we could afford to eat out every night. Because we would. I'm not a fan of making dinner. Either that or I wish I could hire a personal chef for our family. That would probably be healthier than eating out every night. It would be nice if the chef were also the housekeeper. I want an Alice (from the Brady Bunch). Wouldn't that be great?

Friday. 4.8.11. We took a little road trip to Chicago to see the Shedd Aquarium. Derrick was there as a kid, but I guess it's changed a LOT. I'd never been there. A couple weeks ago Sage brought home a book about Ocean life. Then one night last week we watched the Disney movie "Oceans," so going to the Aquarium was kind of a cool reinforcement to all the stuff we'd been learning about Oceans. It wasn't even planned, everything just kind of happened coincidentally. Sage thinks she wants to be a dolphin trainer when she grows up. Oh, this pic is of a coral reef. It was my favorite part of the Aquarium, so colorful and beautiful. And so much of it reminded me of the movie Finding Nemo!

Saturday. 4.9.11. Derrick made blueberry pancakes and bacon for breakfast! It was kind of a fiasco. We had about 3 drops of milk in the fridge, so he had to run to the store to get milk before he could make the pancakes. Then once he started cooking them, he went to the cupboard to get syrup, and there was about 3 drops of syrup left in the bottle! So I went to the store to get syrup. It was almost lunch time by the time we had breakfast, but it's ok. It was delicious. I splurged and got Mrs. Butterworth's, and OMG, have I been missing out! I always buy the cheap syrup from Aldi. It's good - I mean, it's pure sugar, of course it's good, right? But Mrs. Butterworth's really IS thick and rich and buttery! I don't know, I might become a syrup snob.

Sunday. 4.10.11. It got up to 83 degrees on Sunday. It was a little taste of summer in April. It seems like every year around the middle of April we get a couple summery days. I end up getting out the little kids' pool, they play in the water and sun all day, and then it goes back to normal spring weather for a month or two. No exception this year. It's supposed to be in the 50's all this week. Not complaining - it's still really nice. I love spring thunderstorms, and I love seeing the earth come back to life. Anyway, here's Jayna dumping a bucket of water on her head.

April 3rd & 4th

2011-04-04T19:18:00.000-04:00

Picture-A-Day:

Sunday. 4.3.11.

Sunday nap time!

Monday. 4.4.11.

Tonight at dinner we were trying to get T to eat, so every time he put his spoon in his mouth we started chanting his name. He LOVED it!

We've had trouble getting him to eat dinner lately. It's especially annoying because he screams and cries in the doorway for the ENTIRE time I'm in the kitchen making dinner. It's so unbelievably frustrating, as you can imagine, if you've ever had a 1-year-old throwing a tantrum at you for a half hour while you're trying to get dinner made for the entire family. Then to add insult to injury (literally?) he refuses to eat his dinner! Well, he ate about half of it tonight. He loves attention. He loves people laughing at him and clapping for him, and apparently he loves hearing his name chanted. Who doesn't, really?

... thanks for reading.

April 1st & 2nd

2011-04-02T21:07:00.001-04:00

Picture-A-Day:

Friday. 4.1.11.

Date Night!

Yah-Hoo!

I love date night.

We went to Red Robin. This picture is dessert.

Fried cheesecake! It's not the best pic, because I took it with my phone. OMG, best invention EVER.

Ok, not EVER.

But I LOVE cheesecake, and I LOVE fried food. It's weird, because I usually like pretty healthy foods, but I have a weakness for battered fried food. Onion strings, cheese sticks, mushrooms. Love, love love.

I also have been addicted to cheesecake ever since I was pregnant with Jayna.

I craved cream cheese and anything made with it during that pregnancy, and I still haven't shaken that craving.

Fried cheesecake. Unbelievable. After dinner we went to check out the store-closing-sale at Borders, but we were about 2 weeks too late. Not much left.
Then we went to the mall to shop for jeans and things for us, but didn't find anything.
Bummer. But we had a good time hanging out together anyway.

Saturday. 4.2.11.

And that brings us to today!

It was kind of coldish and dampish and cloudy and windy today, but the kids wanted to play outside anyway.

I fenced in a little area for the boys. Our yard is pretty big, and it's hard to keep track of two toddlers running in opposite directions. Sometimes I'll be talking to one of the girls, or watching them do something spectacular, and one of the boys will disappear around the corner of the house or something. A little scary. This way they're trapped. Yeah, it's pretty much like a cage. But I figure it's better than them running into the street or onto the railroad tracks behind our house.

March 27-31

2011-04-02T20:47:00.001-04:00

Picture-A-Day:

Aaaaarrrggggg! It's been a week since I've posted! It's been a crazy week. Part of it has been getting Photoshop, and trying to figure that out. Um... I really had no idea it was so confusing! I thought all the pros used it, it must be great software, but I can't seem to get very far. It's frustrating to me.

Also, I've been busy reading. I'm on the last book of the Harry Potter series, and I'm now over halfway through it. The entire book has been hard to put down, since it's kind of the climax of the entire series.

I love it more the second time. The first time you read a series like that, you don't always understand the entire context. As the story unfolds, and things come together, you forget details from earlier. The second time you read it, those little things make more sense because you already know the whole story, you understand the whole context. It feels even richer and more fulfilling to read it the second time. Sorry if that's supper sappy, it's Harry Potter for pete's sake. Whatever, I love it. Call me a big nerd. Anyway, that's been filling in my little free moments, which is probably another reason I haven't blogged much this week.

I'm glad March is over. For some reason it was super crazy busy! I'm starting to feel like a soccer mom, taking my kids to all kinds of activities all the time. And not just the kids, we've had "grown up stuff" going on too. I won't bore you all with the details. I just hope April slows down a wee little bit. I believe I've had my first failure of the year. I'm pretty sure there was a day this past week that I didn't take a picture. (I don't mean I haven't failed in any way, I'm just talking about my picture-a-day endeavor.) We'll find out as we go, shall we?

Sunday. 3.27.11.

My usual Sunday-dirty-dish-pile.

I think I've mentioned before that I try to do as little work as possible on Sundays. It takes some self discipline to just let dishes pile up like this. I can't stand having a dirty kitchen. But I've found that if I can ignore it, and spend as much time as I can vegging on the couch, I feel much better on Monday.

Monday. 3.28.11.

Jayna can tie her shoes all by herself! She's been working on this for a couple months, so it's a big accomplishment. It's one of those things that, as a parent, I really appreciate having to help one less kid with their shoes every time we go somewhere.

Tuesday. 3.29.11.

I went to Target to get an external hard drive because I need a better way to store my many, many pictures.

Alyssa wanted to come, and she came out with a whole new outfit! Track clothes - shirt, short, and even track shoes. The next day at track she hurt herself. Popped her hip out, apparently. I guess it went back in on its own, but she was in serious pain for a few days. We took her to the doctor on Thursday, and she got some good stuff for the pain. She's ok now.

Did you know they make "track shoes" now? Not the same as the old fashioned "running shoes."

These things are weird! I don't know how to describe it, you'll just have to take my word for it.

It just occured to me that I might be the only person in America who didn't know this.

I'm usually kind of behind on things like fashion and what's "in" and what "all the cool kids are doing."

Wednesday. 3.30.11.

One of life's wonders - kids love to play in boxes!

And apparently, boys love to fight. I came out of the bathroom to find the boys both sitting in this box, slapping each other in the face with both hands, screaming. Welcome to the world of boys.

Thursday. 3.31.11.

This is it. This is the day I didn't take a picture.

I remember getting ready for bed thinking "I don't think I took a picture today." But I just didn't have the energy to go scrounging around the house for something to take a picture of. So. I fail. But that's ok, I'm just gonna keep plugging along, because this is fun.

And that concludes the month of March. I will start a new post for a new month. I do have pictures. :)

Thanks for reading.

March 26th

2011-03-27T16:04:00.000-04:00

Picture-A-Day:

Saturday morning I took Sage to a Young Author's Conference. It was really pretty cool. They had a chance to write and share their own book with a small group of kids their age. Then there was a children's book author/illustrator there doing a little presentation. Mostly he was doing some marketing for his books, and he spent some time teaching the kids how to do simple illustrations. Then they had a little seminar (that is what the picture is) in which an art teacher taught them how to illustrate a book using flat objects (ripped paper, pictures from magazines, etc) to make a collage. It was really neat, and kind of opened the doors for them to use creativity in making books, instead of just following the basic, write the words, draw a picture - which is great too. It was great for Sage because she tends to be a rule-follower, and I always see a light go on for her when somebody shows her that it's ok to think outside "the box" and be creative. She had a good time, and we followed it with lunch at Panera. It was a great little mommy-Sage time, which doesn't happen often enough.

Art!

2011-03-26T18:35:00.001-04:00

Not many things in this world make me feel the way my kids' art work does. I don't know how to explain it, I just love to see them create.

March 23, 24, & 25

2011-03-26T16:39:00.000-04:00

Picture-A-Day:

Wednesday: I made my own corn/tortilla chips. I bought these corn tortillas because little T is allergic to wheat. But he won't eat them, and neither will anybody else. Turns out, everybody loves them when they're fried in hot oil! This was surprisingly easy to make. Here are directions:

1. cut or break corn tortillas into small chunks. You can be artistic like me and tear them into random shapes, or you can use a knife or pizza cutter to make strips or wedges.

2. heat about 1/2-1" veg. oil in a skillet in medium-ish heat. You might have to play with the temp a little bit - if it's too hot, they'll cook too fast and get overdone, but if it's not hot enough they'll just sit there and get mushy in the oil.

3. put a few pieces of tortilla into the hot oil, let cook about 30 seconds or so, then flip them with a tongs. Take them out when they're a nice golden brown.
*note: if you put too many pieces in the oil at a time you won't be able to flip them fast enough and the first ones that get flipped will burn by the time you get the last ones flipped. I recommed no more than 5 or 6 pieces at a time.

Thursday: I went shopping. Bought myself some new jeans. I was down to one pair that didn't have holes, so I figured it was time to get a new pair so I don't have to wear the same jeans every day. I also got some shorts because the weather IS going to start getting warmer soon. Then I treated myself to lunch at Adam's Bistro at Concord Mall. All I can say is, magically delicious. I love those people. AND, then I bought these plastic filing tubs to continue the fight against paper clutter. I'm using these for long-term storage of school papers. Sage's box is the most full since she's had 2 years of preschool and most of Kindergarten. I didn't have Alyssa until she was in 3rd grade, so hers is mostly report cards, awards, and a few of the more special things she's brought home from school. I feel pretty happy with this system.

Friday: We got a new tent! We actually bought it on Thursday, but Friday we did our trial-run set-up in the yard. Our old tent is a 7-8 person tent, which anybody who camps in tents knows, really means it fits about 5 people comfortably. We were REALLY crowded last year with the addition of a baby bed. (I think we kept the smallest baby in the car seat/carrier). We've been tent-shopping since last Fall, watching sales and clearances, but didn't find anything. We've had our eye on this one and it never went on sale at all, so we decided it was time to buy it, since camping season will be starting in just a few short months. It's a 12-person tent and it is HUGE! Well, huge when it's empty. I'm sure it won't seem so huge when we're all living in it, but I'm pretty sure it wouldn't have fit on the site we had in Colorado last summer. Setting the tent up got me really antsy to get out and camp again. SO READY FOR SUMMER!

March 19, 20, 21, & 22

2011-03-23T12:44:00.000-04:00

Picture-A-Day:

(I am WAY behind!)

Saturday: YIKES! That's only 3/4 of a tank too. There is no doubt in my mind it would be over $100 if it had been a full tank. Thankfully, that will probably last us a few weeks.It's pretty painful.

Sunday: This picture isn't about Sunday. I just took it on Sunday because I needed a picture of the day. I did a couple photo shoots for a non-profit organization in my community. My friend Robyn happens to work there too. They got a grant from United Way, and UW asked them to submit some photos of their organization "in action," so they asked me to come take some for them. I'll post some of them over on my other blog soon. Anyway, they gave me this gorgeous locally made clay bowl. It makes a perfect fruit bowl on my dining room table, and I'm totally in love with it. It goes well with my eclectic collection of clay bowls we've started gathering from the Empty Bowls events. I love pottery. Good, handmade stuff.

Monday: What an adorable little face, huh? I can hardly believe he's almost 2. Jayna was getting ready for school, and little J decided to be "big" and try on her backpack.

How many of you struggle, as I do, with paper clutter??? If you have kids in school - even just one - you probably know what I'm talking about. If you have more than one kid in school, I swear it multiplies exponentially. It is unreal. I am trying to come up with a system to hang on to those papers we'll be needing soon, but not exactly right now. For example - child has a field trip coming up next month. Child brings home a paper with details about the field trip. I want to save the paper, but where? Stick to the fridge, along with a hundred thousand other things? Lay on the pile on my desk, along with a hundred thousand other things? On top of the microwave? On top of the dishwasher? Well, one of those places is probably where it'll end up in my house, but then when the time comes for the field trip and I need to know the details, I won't be able to find the paper. Same with doctor reminder cards, parent teacher conference schedules, and any other upcoming events. I can't file or throw them away yet, because I still need them. But in the meantime, they need a home. So, I found these little pop-out folders, and put a name on each one. Each person in the family has their own folder so when it's time for the event, I'll know just where each paper is. Now if I can just make sure the folders don't get lost...
Frankly, I wish every organization I'm a part of would offer the option of paperless communication. School and government in particular. (Actually, all of my bills are paperless, and I also pay them online, so that's great.) I would MUCH rather have everything emailed to me, then I could create virtual folders on my computer. No more paper. But, alas, even though computers and the internet have been around for like 15 years, for some reason the government still wants to rely on paper.

March 18th

2011-03-19T08:28:00.000-04:00

Picture-A-Day:

Train. I was stopped at a crossing when I took this. My house is just on the other side of the crossing. It's not in this picture, it's a ways to the right. Ever since Derrick started working for the railroad I've had this ambition to photograph trains. It's hard though, because they're usually moving. And you never really know when they're coming. Although at my house, all I have to do is sit in my back yard for a few minutes and one will surely come along. I don't know if it's possible, but I'd like to visit a train yard some time (like the one my husband visits 5 days a week). But it's dangerous there, and I'm sure they wouldn't want me walking all over the tracks and climbing on cars. But it's there in my mind, something I want to do.

March 17th

2011-03-18T20:19:00.001-04:00

Picture-A-Day:

Thursday was a WONDERFUL day. It got into the 70's. I broke out the bare feet, painted my toe nails, and let those babies breathe in the fresh spring air. They were in heaven.

But that's not the only thing that was wonderful about Thursday. I got to do my first maternity photo shoot. And I'm REALLY EXTREMELY happy about the way the pics turned out. Conditions were perfect for doing outside pictures because it was just slightly overcast - just enough so the sun wasn't glaring or casting harsh shadows. My friend Ashley's baby is due on Easter this year, which happens to also fall on MY birthday. In all my (almost) 33 years, this is the first time I can remember my birthday falling on Easter. I'm going to let her see her pics first, but hopefully she'll let me post a handful of them, because I'm excited about them.

Would you believe there's even more awesomeness to add to the list? First a little back story - we have 2 foster sons who we've had since birth. One is 23 months, the other is 18 months. Thursday we went to our attorney's office to sign petitions for adoption. It's not the adoption itself, it's basically the first real step. We've been working for a few months with DCS and our attorney gathering paperwork. The petitions we signed on Thursday will be sent to court. They basically say, "we want to adopt these kids, please," only they use a lot of legal jargon which is why we hired a lawyer - she speaks legalese. So even though it doesn't really change anything for the moment, it felt like a big, exciting step. We've decided what we're going to name them and everything. I'm not telling on the internet, so don't ask. (We're not changing their first names).

AND THEN to top it all off, Derrick decided after dinner that he needed to make an ice cream run. So he and Alyssa went to Culver's and brought ice cream back for us. I love Culver's better than DQ. It's technically "frozen custard," not "ice cream," and it is amazing.

Oh, and Happy St. Patrick's Day. We don't celebrate it. No reason, we just never do anything. I'm even Irish!

A Day at the Park

2011-03-18T19:50:00.001-04:00

Just wanted to share with y'all some pics from the other night.
It was a beautiful spring day, one of the first this season, and we just couldn't wait to get outside and run around.

March 15th & 16th

2011-03-17T08:13:00.001-04:00

Picture-A-Day:

3.15.11: First grill of the season! Fresh, homemade brats from Lowrey's in Niles, MI.

3.16.11: Yesterday's highs in the upper 50's meant a trip to the park after dinner. Yea! Today is supposed to be even warmer, highs in the mid 60's.

March 14th

2011-03-15T14:33:00.001-04:00

Picture-A-Day:

If everyone in my family ate an apple a day, we would eat 49 apples a week! I don't know why, but that occurred to me the other day. That's a LOT of apples! Truthfully, I cut up about one apple a day, and everybody kind of munches on it. I think 2 of the kids do most of the munching, everybody else might have a chunk or two.

March 12th & 13th

2011-03-14T14:02:00.002-04:00

Picture-A-Day
from a REAL housewife:

Saturday: Sage and Jayna are in a gymnastics class at the YMCA. They LOVE it. It's fun to see their faces beaming throughout the entire class.

Sunday: I did laundry on Friday. Folded it all Saturday night. Sunday I found my last load still in the dryer. Oops! I know I'm not the only one. It's now in a laundry basket on the kitchen floor. My guess is, it will stay there til the next round, which will probably be Thursday night.

March 11th

2011-03-11T17:37:00.001-05:00

Picture-A-Day:

This is a poor representation, but today we used our giant freezer in the basement for its intended purpose, for the first time.
We heard about this butcher shop place in Buchanan, MI where they sell bulk meat at great prices. We filled the freezer, and I figure we averaged about $1.70/lb. We got just about every kind of meat there is. Bacon, sausage, brats, pork chops, ground beef, steak (yes STEAK - I'm pretty sure I've never actually bought steak because the prices make my frugal stomach squirm and I can't bring myself to do it, but I can do $2.50/lb), boneless chicken breasts, chicken wings. It took about 2 hours to get there, shop, and get back home, and then we had to spend a couple hours separating into meal-size portions. I didn't want a 10 pound frozen pile of bacon in the freezer, or 40 pounds of chicken frozen together. So, that took a while, but now our freezer is FULL of meat, and I estimate it'll save us about $30/week on groceries. That's pretty big savings. I'm pretty excited. I know I'll probably be booed by the meat-haters out there, and I don't know if the beef is grass fed or not. I'm not there yet. So sue me.

March 10th

2011-03-10T21:43:00.001-05:00

Picture-A-Day:

I'm a grandma! Not for real, don't panic! Alyssa's doing that thing where they bring home a fake baby and have to pretend it's their baby. This is gonna be fun. She only gets her for the weekend, and she hasn't "turned on" yet. We talked about sending a note to her teacher to get her out of it, since she has so much experience with babies already, and has already sworn off ever having kids. But, it's extra credit, so she's doing it.
And I have to confess... I went to McDonald's again tonight! Even Jayna said she was getting tired of it. Oh man. For the last 2 weeks we've had something going on almost every night. We're becoming "those people!" Guess that's what happens when you have 3 school-age kids. And this week D's been working 2nd shift, which means anything that's going on in the evening, I have to do by myself with all the kids. So, in between drop-offs and pick-ups, we went to McDonald's. Mainly so I wouldn't have to cook or clean up, and the kids have something to do other than sit at a restaurant table. Last night we came home in between events, and warmed up left overs, we ate, and then left again. It wasn't horrible, but I just didn't want to do it again. I promise, this will be a short-lived phase. I really don't even like McDonald's. I just love the playland. I think every restaurant should have one.

March 9th

2011-03-09T20:34:00.001-05:00

Picture-A-Day:

Mmmm, oatmeal. I LOVE just about anything made from oats. Bread, cookies, granola, and even plain old oatmeal. But not plain. Or old. But you know what I mean. I set this up last night in my small slow-cooker. I put in all the regular ingredients you'd use to make oatmeal - oats, water, dash of salt (actually I forgot the salt, but added it in the morning because it tasted bland). Then added some chunks of apple (peels on - that's the good part!), cinnamon, and honey to sweeten. Talk about super healthy, right? Since there's nothing perishable in there, I left it on the counter and set a timer on it (one of those timers you plug your lights into when you go on vacation), and set it to turn on at about 5:30, so breakfast was ready when everyone got up at 6:45-ish. It was DELISH! About half of my family ate a good portion of it. Jayna didn't like it, and the boys picked at it, but all got eaten. And I was a little bummed because I found myself craving more throughout the day. Somehow it was better than stove top oatmeal. I think maybe because the oats soaked in the water all night? It seemed like they were mushier and more thoroughly cooked. Next time I'm gonna try it with blueberries. And then maybe peaches. I'll definitely be doing this again. I'm trying to come up with healthy breakfast options that don't take a lot of work in the morning. I'm just not a "cook breakfast" person.

I've been thinking that I should have called this series "A Real Housewife of Elkhart County." Have you ever seen one of those "real housewife" shows???? Oh my goodness, they're appalling. All I can say is, those are NOT real housewives. They have no idea how easy they have it. They should do a "REAL real housewife" show.

And one last thing... I WENT TO HIGH SCHOOL ORIENTATION TONIGHT. Not for me, FOR MY DAUGHTER!!!!!! HOW OLD AM I???? I'm actually not as freaked out as I was when she was about to start middle school. I think I'm looking forward to high school because I'm hoping the middle school craziness will be left behind. Here's hoping. If you have (or have had) a middle schooler, you know exactly what I'm talking about. Especially if you're a step mom. Orientation was torture, mainly because of one particular toddler who absolutely refused to do anything but run away from me. I left early.

March 8th

2011-03-08T21:46:00.001-05:00

Picture-A-Day:

The Girl Scouts have been putting on a little program at Sage's school for anyone to come and learn about "healthy living." I think they're trying to promote GS, and it's rather working. Sage REALLY wants to join now. My favorite thing about this picture though, is her outfit! I love letting my kids dress themselves. Sometimes they match beautifully, and other times... they just grab one of each item. I love this from top to bottom. I feel like there was a parenting question I was going to ask the "world" but I can't remember it now. I'm sure I'll think of it tomorrow when I'm in the middle of whatever it is I want to ask.

March 7th

2011-03-07T18:35:00.001-05:00

Picture-A-Day:

look what I found in my bulb garden!

March 3rd, 4th, 5th, & 6th

2011-03-06T21:19:00.001-05:00

Picture-A-Day:

3.3.11 - Last week was rough. The girls have been bickering and mean, and the boys have been whining non stop. I'm chalking it up to spring fever. Since it's still a bit too cold for the playground, I resorted twice last week to the McDonald's playland, just for a change of scenery and to get everyone out of the house. It worked very well, for the time being.

3.4.11 - I woke up to this Friday morning. We had to buy a new faucet. I like the one we got, but now our portable dishwasher won't fit onto it. So Friday night the dishwasher got rolled to the bathroom and hooked up to the bathroom sink. Yeah, weird. But it works. We're still trying to find some kind of adapter for the faucet. I just know there's got to be something out there. And check out the water in this pic, huh? I wasn't even trying to do that.

3.5.11 - Date night at Antoinos! This hand holding was totally real, not staged. I just decided it was a great photo opp. After dinner we saw the movie, The Adjustment Bureau. I LOVED it! I thought it was going to be much more of a "guy movie" - you know, a lot of action and suspense. The romance was MUCH better than I expected, and I loved that. And yet it had enough action and suspense, (I think) to keep guys interested too. It was not your typical romance. I thought it combined "guy movie" with "chick flick" very well. That's my opinion, anyway.

3.6.11 - I don't know, my brain just felt mushy today. I blame the kids. Like I said before, the girls have been fighting and the boys have been whining, and I feel guilty because I just want to enjoy my kids, but they're really annoying me right now. All of them. My wonderful husband made my night tonight by vacuuming and mopping the floors. It's needed to be done for days. And I didn't even have to ask him! I am so in love with him right now. And to top it off, when he got done he went to Culver's and got me a burger and a mixer. He's the best ever.

March 2nd

2011-03-03T12:50:00.001-05:00

Picture-A-Day:

Say "Cheese!" Ha ha, get it? It's like I'm telling the cheese to say cheese. I came up with that all by myself.

Aaaand, moving on... I bought this 6-ish pound log of cheese at E&S bulk food store in Shipshewana (I don't know what E&S stands for, maybe somebody's names?) Anyway, I love that store. Shipshewana has a high concentration of Amish people, who give the impression of being kind of old fashioned. In a lot of good ways. For instance, they do a lot of their own baking and cooking from scratch. At the bulk foods store, you can get huge bags of flour. Some are 5-10 pounds, and some are more like 50 pounds - like you'd need a giant barrel in the cellar to store it in. They have just about every basic ingredient you could think of - oats, flax, wheat germ, sugar, spices, corn meal... you get the idea. They also have some home made breads, jams, salsas, things like that. I've been going there for a couple years to get honey. They have a gallon jug of honey that comes from Middlebury (right next to Shipshewana). I started using local honey because I heard it was good for seasonal allergies, and several in my family have them. And now I just love the flavor so much, I don't even like regular packaged honey that comes from who-knows-where. (Man, I'm becoming SUCH a food snob!) Anyway, I went to E&S a few weeks ago to get some honey, and I also wanted to see what I could do with one of these cheese logs. This log was $2.49/pound. At a regular deli you can get cheese for $6 a pound! At Aldi it's about $3.50-$4 a pound, which is a decent price. $2.50 is much better. Especially when you go through cheese like we do. So I got this 6.5 lb. log for about $16. Once a week or so I just cut off a handful of slices and store them in a Rubbermaid container. I also shred a handful and store that in another Rubbermaid container. If you're a hard-core green person, I know plastic containers are bad. But honestly, I don't know what else to store cheese in. I'm trying to become better at doing right by the earth, but we live in such a culture of convenience, that it's hard to find alternatives. And plastic containers are better than baggies, right? I use baggies as little as possible. But that's another story. Really, I just wanted to show you how I cut my cheese. Man, I'm hilarious today! ;)

March 1st (and February 23rd)

2011-03-01T14:25:00.001-05:00

Picture-A-Day:

I am having a major case of stage fright. This is The Daily Grind Coffeehouse. I worked there for 6 years. Actually, I worked at what we called the "Baby Grind" - it was their 2nd location, but we had to close a few years ago because the big bad "Man" moved in down the street. (I'm not sure if that's true, but that's my opinion). My photos are now displayed inside this coffeehouse for the entire city of Elkhart to see - and anybody else who happens to come in, and believe me, they get customers from all over the world. Sometimes. But mostly from Elkhart. I've been having a touch of the butterflies for the last few days, but this morning I almost just said forget it, and didn't bring my stuff in. But, I'm a person who keeps her commitments, so I hauled my box of framed photos over there, heart pounding like mad, palms sweating. I've never done anything like this before. I was in a couple school plays (minor roles), and I absolutely HATED speech class, or anything that resembled giving a speech. But this is a little different. This is not me up on stage for a few minutes and then it's over. (Which, by the way, is much scarier for me than this) - This is me putting my work out there for all to see, for a whole month. I'm excited. I've been looking for an avenue for this. It helps to have a connection to this place. But, I'm nervous too. FYI - I am in no way fishing for compliments here... just trying to be honest.

And... I was looking through my "archives," and realized I missed a day last week. Not sure how that happened - oh wait, mother of 5 kids, yeah, that's probably it. Anyway, this is last Wednesday, February 23rd's picture. Coincidentally, that day I was working putting these little cards into individual plastic sleeves. They are also on display (and for sale!) at the Daily Grind. Right now. You could walk in there right now and buy these. So... if you want to visit the Daily Grind, they are at 113 E. Lexington Ave. They seriously have the best coffee. I only drink their coffee. I buy their beans so I can drink it at home every day. And they have really good food too. They are not paying me to say this.

February 27th & 28th

2011-03-01T14:02:00.002-05:00

Picture-A-Day:

"Mommy, come look at us!"

And... my new appliances! I should say, "our" new appliances, but we all know I'm the queen of this castle, so they're really mine. Besides, I'll be using them the most - especially the one on the right. I couldn't get back far enough to get them both in one picture, so this is really two pictures made into a "collage" on my fancy photo software, which is why it looks a little funky. But you get the idea. Actually, except for the slight color difference, I think the collage turned out pretty darn good. The fridge is 3 cubic feet bigger than our old one. Visualize 3 cubic feet - it's a LOT of space! Like 6 more gallons of milk! Which is pretty much why we needed a bigger fridge - we drink 3 different kinds of milk in this house, and I end up going to the store for milk about twice a week because we just don't have room for all of it. And the range - yes, I think it's called a range, even though that sounds like 1952, and doesn't really even make sense. I am so excited to bake in this baby. I LOVE to bake. And our old oven was just bad news. For one thing, the temperature was wrong. I always had to set it about 25 degrees higher than the recipe called for. Not a big deal, just a little quirk I could live with. What I could not live with (though we did for the past 5 years), is the uneven baking. Everything I made in the oven would be VERY well done on the outside, and still gooey on the inside. Not good for cakes, pot pies, breads... yucky, yucky, yucky. NO MORE! Yesterday I made 4 loaves of zucchini bread (from frozen zucchini from last year's garden!). I baked them all at the same time, side by side all the way across, and they were all 100% evenly baked. And delicious. And perfect. And I'm in love, and my love of baking can be put to use once again.

February 26th

2011-02-28T12:17:00.001-05:00

Picture-A-Day:

Saturday night we loaded up our van with friends and went to Goshen for the Empty Bowls event. I know they do similar things nation-wide, so you should check to see if there's on in your area. Local restaurants donate soups, and local clay artists donate hundreds of bowls. For $15 you get a bowl, soup, a cookie and a drink. Then you get to keep the bowl, and all the money goes to a local charity.

Last year just Derrick and I went. Some of our friends went too, but we didn't coordinate with them, so they arrived just as we were leaving. It was miserably cold, and about half of the hour-and-a-half wait is outside. It wasn't the best time of our lives, but a year later I couldn't wait to go get another bowl. I LOVE my bowl! Besides, I broke Derrick's bowl, so we had to go replace it.

This year we planned better and just brought our friends with us. It was SO MUCH MORE FUN! For one thing, it wasn't as cold. It's February, and it's winter, but it wasn't miserable. And having friends around helped pass the time.

I love this event. I love how different aspects of the community come together to raise money for a local organization that gives back to the community. Food service, artists, the farmer's market where the event is held, and the people who come to enjoy it all.

February 25th

2011-02-27T16:06:00.000-05:00

Picture-A-Day:

Yes, here we are appliance shopping again. But this isn't exactly a story about appliance shopping. It's a story of the Eubanks causing a ruckus at Lowe's. Three times in one shopping trip. We made the mistake of letting the girls have c-a-n-d-y before we left. We got to the store, and had basically picked out what we wanted, but ended up changing our minds after we got there (of course).

Incident #1: As we were discussing and comparing the pros and cons of the one we thought we wanted with the one we realized we wanted after all, the girls were running laps around us, and around the immediate aisles that we were standing it. And, suddenly the alarm starts going off, very loudly, and the girls come walking, looking guilty and covering their ears, away from the emergency exit. They'd apparently leaned on the door handle that sets off the alarm. We stood there looking shocked and embarrassed, for about 5 minutes before a store employee came over to turn the alarm off. FIVE MINUTES - is a long time to listen to a really loud fire alarm going off, especially if you're 4 and you're the one who made it go off.

Incident #2: Ok, so we picked out our appliances, blah blah blah. Then we had some electrical components to buy because we're switching from a gas stove to electric. So this is probably a half hour after the alarm incident, we're in the electrical aisle, and the girls are running laps up and down the aisle, and ... can you guess what happened? We hear a crash-boom-bang, look down the aisle, and see the girls both on the floor, along with one of those cardboard display box thingys that they'd knocked down, and all the contents on the floor. I don't even know what it was, some kind of electrical tools or something. I cleaned it up, and after that the girls were required to keep one hand on the cart at all times. No more monkying around. And they're grounded from candy/sweets/sugar for 2 weeks. I know, harsh, huh? It started out as one week. But after a while they got sick of holding onto the cart, and started getting an attitude, so it got increased to another week.

Incident #3: We finished shopping, bought our appliances (they're being delivered on Monday, so... stay tuned!) We're out in the parking lot, packing the kids into the van. La, la, la, I walk the cart (it was one of those "car" carts that make the kids feel like they're driving cars) over to the cart-return thingy in the parking lot, and walk my happy little way back to the van, excited about our new things, disappointed that we have to wait 3 days to have them, nervous about spending so much money. And a car alarm starts going off across the way from us. Apparently I did not put my cart all the way IN to the cart return. It was full. And it was a weird cart. So I just kind of left it sitting there right on the edge, because there was no way of getting it IN. And, I guess the parking lot is slightly on an incline (as apparently all parking lots are - have you ever had trouble unloading your groceries because the cart keeps rolling away? Happens to me all the time. Sorry, tangent). Anyway, the cart turned, rolled down the hill that doesn't look like a hill, and bumped into a car about 3 stalls away from the cart return. My hero husband did a good deed and put the cart properly away for me.

And that's the story of the Eubanks causing a ruckus at Lowe's.