Today has been full of adventures. Okay, maybe not "full", but there have been a few pretty good stories to come out of it.
This morning, all the kids woke up super-early like they have been now that summer's nearly here, and the sun is rising earlier, and I was able, for the first time since moving to North Carolina, to get everyone dressed, fed, and ready for the early service at church. Amazing, isn't it? Anyway, continuing on, it gets better. I sent Colin, Brennan, and Kailey outside while I got Nick and the last couple things (Tiffany stayed home with Bella), and got out the door. While I was doing so, the kids found "candy leaves" somewhere in the front yard. As I was shooing everyone to the car and realizing "candy leaves" is probably something they should not be eating, Brennan starts waving one at me, and I see that it's a leaf covered in bug eggs. That, yes, they had been eating. Candy button-style.
Tiffany freaked out about it when I told her after church more than I did. I'm used to such things with the boys. She, on the other hand, has girls. Kailey was horrified when Tiffany asked her if she'd eaten any. "Colin and Brennan were, I wasn't!" Lol!
Moving on to story 2, I got Colin some baseball stuff for his birthday, and we've been playing every once in a while (that kid is a natural. On his birthday, he'd never held a bat before, and by that afternoon was hitting balls across the street). We played a little more this evening. He's attempting to learn how to bat while I'm attempting to learn how to pitch, and trying to remember everything I overheard while Nathan was in Little League about how to hold a bat, and all the rest. Brennan and Nick were running around, Brennan wanted a turn to bat, so I pitched a little to him. His "hits" are me miraculously hitting the bat when I throw the ball, but he thinks it's spectacular. When he swings the bat, it's usually vertically, and even then it's not for every pitch. But the boys were having fun, and I'd pitched all the balls to each of them a couple times, then Nick starts walking around and picking up all the balls while I was still pitching, and putting them back in my bucket! He did that for most of the rest of the time we were playing! It was so cute, watching him in his little I-just-started-walking fashion, picking up those balls. And then when he got tired of that, he took the bat Brennan had been using, and started walking around with it. I tried getting him to stand still so I could toss a couple balls to him, but he didn't want to.
Also today, the kids wanted to fingerpaint. They didn't understand that that meant using your fingers to paint. Colin had an orange glove all the way up to his shirt sleeve, and Brennan's hand was covered in red. Then Kailey had to join in the fun with blue and white. Kids! At least we know they'll have fun when we make Matthew's homecoming signs! And, this is why I only buy Crayola!
Sunday, June 5, 2011
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Review of Teddy's Button
credit
Lamplighter Publishing is giving me a free copy of Teddy's Button by Amy LeFeuvre for reading it and posting a review on my blog. I read it to Colin (4 years old) during Circle Time in the morning, one chapter a day. We finished it yesterday, because he wanted me to read another chapter before dinner. Who's going to say 'no' when their kid asks them to read to them?!
Although it is a chapter book, Teddy's Button is age-appropriate to read to kids probably about three and up. Brennan (two years old) wasn't very interested, so I let him run off to play when I started reading it to Colin. Reading on their own, it's not a beginning-reader book, but most kids who are proficient at reading would be able to enjoy it, maybe needing some help with the big words. One thing I like about Lamplighter's books is that the harder vocabulary words are defined at the bottom of each page, as are the references to Bible verses mentioned in the text.
As the story begins, Teddy tells the story of his father, who was a soldier and was killed in battle while bravely standing against the enemy. When his body was brought home, there was only one button left on his jacket, which has since become Teddy's prized possession. Teddy is also set on becoming a soldier when he grows up.
A new girl, Nancy, comes to the village, and she doesn't believe the story of the button. Her father is a sailor, and she insists that sailors are better than soldiers. This becomes a source of contention between the two.
Mr. Upton, the rector of the village church, invites Teddy over for tea one Sunday after witnessing an encounter between him and Nancy. Mr. Upton tells Teddy about Christ, who wants him to be a soldier in His army, and tells him what he needs to do to enlist. Teddy goes home to think about it, and later, by himself, accepts Christ as his Saviour. This is a turning point in his life.
Teddy befriends Nancy, starts telling everyone about Christ, and tries to stop playing many of the tricks he used to play. He doesn't always do good, however. His greatest enemy is Bully, the name he has chosen for the bad side of himself. Nancy has not accepted Christ as Saviour, because she wants to be a sailor in God's army, and says she will never be a soldier.
The climax of the story happens because Teddy is fighting with Nancy. Nancy takes his button from him, and he tries yanking it out of her hands. He succeeds, but the button ends up flying into the river. Without a thought, Teddy jumps into the river after it, and hits his head on the bottom. A passing farmer rescues him, and brings him to the doctor, but Teddy hangs between life and death for days.
Does Teddy live? What happens to Nancy? Is the button ever found? Read the story yourself and find out!
Sunday, August 1, 2010
Blueberries!
We went blueberry picking this weekend. One of my friends told me about this blueberry farm about 45 minutes away that had you-pick blueberries for $1 per pound. That's such a great price, and getting to pick them yourself! I knew it would be a lot of fun, so Heather and I brought the boys on Saturday. We got there around 9:45, and ended up picking for about three hours. We had never been to pick blueberries before, and were surprised at the way they grew. Blueberries grow on large bushes, averaging maybe 6-7 feet tall, in clusters kind of like grapes. To pick them, you just run your hand along the branch. The ripe ones will fall into your bucket, the unripe ones will stay on the bush to ripen.
credit
Colin and Brennan found another little boy, and the three of them played together for a time, drawing in the dirt with sticks, running around, and playing hide and seek in the blueberry bushes. Niko sat in the stroller for a good while, until he got hungry and wanted out. I held him for a bit while I continued to pick berries, and I'm not sure if a berry fell into my hand (the one that was holding him), or if he'd grabbed one off of the bush (this baby seriously has the best hand-eye coordination of any 6-month-old I've seen). In either case, I found him nom-ing a blueberry against my fingers. I fed him several blueberries that way, and he seemed to like them. He ended up with a diaper rash and spitting up the rest of the day, though. Today when I gave him a couple more blueberries, the spitting-up started almost immediately. Poor guy :( He just isn't ready for solid foods, yet.
We took a break for a while when Colin and Brennan got tired, and ate peanut butter sandwiches by the car. And then we picked even more! When we finally finished, we had three pails full of blueberries, plus some Colin and Brennan had each picked in their pails.
Colin ran ahead as we were bringing our blueberries to get weighed and pay. The man at the booth poured Colin's into a box and gave it to him, free. He had about a pound, maybe a little more. I was impressed he'd picked so many! Then he gave Brennan the little bucket he had with the (dozen?) blueberries in it, free. Bennan had eaten most of the blueberries he picked! It reminded me of a story I read to the boys last year, Blueberries for Sal.
Heather and I gave our berries to the man, and he weighed them at about 18 pounds. We'd talked to him for a few minutes prior, and he'd seen the Marine Corps bumper stickers on our van. So he asked if we were military, and I told him my husband was a Marine. He said, "Okay, I'll give you a military discount. How does $5 sound?" He gave us 19 pounds of blueberries for $5! I was so excited! We thanked him, of course, and paid, and got all of the boys 'n' berries in the car. I gave Colin and Brennan a cup of berries to eat on the way home, but those poor guys fell asleep almost as soon as we started driving.
After we got home, I sorted through the berries, and put them all in baggies. We filled 9 1/2 quart baggies! Most of them went into the freezer, but I left some out to munch on, and some to make blueberry pancakes for breakfast. Yum!
Thursday, July 15, 2010
Home Alone
This last week has been a huge struggle. I'm home from Texas, and my dad has gone back home. Nathan and Heather aren't coming until next week.
It isn't being by myself that's so hard most of the time. It's dealing with all three kids fussing/misbehaving/needing attention at once, getting everything done that needs to be done, and keeping my sanity while doing it that's hard. Tuesday was especially bad. I wanted to just get out and do something, but no one was free for a playdate, and it was alternately too hot or rainy to go to the park, and I was trying to get Niko on a nap schedule, and needed to stay home for him. I also had wanted to clean the house. None of it happened. The morning started with everyone fussing and complaining, and that continued through the day. Colin was picking on Brennan, Brennan was being super-sensitive and became OCD about everything (if I took something out of the refrigerator, he FREAKED OUT if I didn't put it back EXACTLY where I'd gotten it. Where Colin needs his routine, Brennan needs things to be in their place, I guess.) Niko didn't nap all day, and only wanted to be held. At one point, all three kids were crying at the same time. I wanted someone to be here to help so badly, but I was on my own. I ended up feeding the boys their dinner, and put them all to bed at 6:00. I've never done that before, but it was the only thing I could do at that point, and I'm really glad I did. It did take until about 7 to get Niko to sleep, and until 8 for Colin to fall asleep, but it was so nice having that down-time after the horribleness that was the entire day.
Yesterday a few times seemed like they were going to start up again, but I went overboard trying to keep them happy. I gave Colin and Brennan both pie pans full of sugar to draw pictures in at the table (I wanted to use shaving cream, but couldn't find any). I gave all of the boys baths after that, or at least put them in the water, and let them splash around. And we went to Chick-fil-A for dinner.
We did go to the Hubert Bypass Park and Nature Trail... Monday? The boys wanted to go on the nature trail, and as we were walking down there, we stopped to look at a lizard on a post, but there was a wasp sitting on the other side of the lizard that we didn't know about until Colin reached for the lizard and got stung twice on the hand. Poor guy! But he was a little trooper, and wanted to keep going. I gave him the option to come home several times, but he wouldn't hear it. I did convince him to hold our cup of ice water against the stings for a while, but even that didn't last very long. The nature trail was pretty fun, and after that, they played at the park for a little bit.
It started raining today, and rain always puts me in the mood to bake. I made a yellow cake, cut it in half to make two layers, filled it with strawberry jelly, frosted it, and added colored sugar sprinkles. The batter had made two 9" cakes, but they turned out a lot higher than I wanted a double layer cake to be (this time). So, I froze one for later.
I also made hummus today, minus the lemon juice. The boys didn't like it, but I did. Nikolai managed to grab a piece of the flatbread while I was listening to something Brennan was saying, and started to eat it. I guess he's ready to start solid food, even if I'm not!
I guess that's it for now. It's time for me to get some sleep before any of these kids wake me up again! Have a good night, everyone.
-Amanda -_-*
Saturday, May 8, 2010
Experimentation
photo creditI've been trying out new recipes the last few days. Well, one was a repeat- banana bread- but I really needed to use those bananas, and it's such a rarity for bananas to get to the banana bread stage that I wasn't going to waste them on something I new to be less than fabulous. Although I did reduce the sugar by half, omit the oil, and add 1/2 c of applesauce to the mix, because I thought about it, had applesauce on hand, and wanted to make it healthier. I hate adding a cup of sugar to anything, it's just so excessively gross when you've accustomed your body to not having that much sugar. Thank you, Colin!
So in addition to the banana bread, what worked: dairy-free oatmeal pancakes, which were, in fact, so good that I think I will make them more often than normal pancakes from scratch. A little more work, but definitely worth it! Challah in the bread machine. I really had doubts about this one. But it worked. And it is good.
Dandelion fritters, which Heather gave me the recipe for a few weeks ago. Our yard was ripe for harvestin' before the lawn guys came to cut it. So Brennan and I harvested half a bucket of dandelion flowers (that part was a lot of fun, and I really enjoyed spending the time with only him), then while they were supposed to be taking their naps, I made them into fritters. They take a little getting used to, but they really weren't that bad. They were much better drizzled with honey. Crockpot Chicken Adobo. I found a new food blog, A Year Of Slow Cooking. Last time Matthew was gone for an excessively long time I found Smitten Kitchen. Look them up. Drool over the pictures. Cook a lot. Anyway, back to the chicken adobo. It was pretty good. The vinegar flavor was a bit strong on the veggies, but the rice evened it out a little, and the leftovers cold for lunch today were phenomenal. The vinegar had mellowed out (or maybe it was because I'd drained most of the liquid), the chicken was still moist and yummy, the bits of pickled carrot and onion that were left were perfectly delightful. I couldn't decide last night if I wanted to make this again, but I think I will, and will refrigerate it and serve it cold next time. It would make a really good summer dinner, cold. Maybe toss it all together with some pasta for a pasta salad sort of dish. Mmmmm!
What didn't work: yogurt. Maybe I did something wrong, maybe I didn't use the right type of milk or starter yogurt (though from what I've read previously, I probably did something wrong. It probably needed to be kept warmer than it was). I tried it twice, and the best I got was the whey separated from the curds, and the curds tasting like sour milk. Wait a minute, curds? In yogurt? Yeah... I think something went wrong. I found a different method for making it in the crockpot (at the aforementioned site, again), and I know of a different method still that would probably also work better. I'll try one or both eventually. But for now I'm going to buy another couple tubs of the ready-made kind. And more flour. Because the co-op won't be ordering again for another couple weeks, and I need flour before then.
So, I'm happy with what I've accomplished in the kitchen. I still need to make some more granola bars, and I'm itching to just go off the deep end and bake fifty things at once, but for the sake of our health, I'll probably abstain. And maybe bring some of this bread to church tomorrow. Or maybe not. I don't like sharing yummy stuff. Though I probably should, if I want to make more. Maybe I'll make a care package for Matthew.
In other news, we got a dog a few days ago. He's a 3-year-old collie named Boomer. Colin loves him. You'd think no boy has ever had a dog before, that's how happy and proud he is. It's fun watching him. Having the dog hasn't been quite so bad as I thought. I really feel a lot safer at night, and I can just send him outside if he's getting to be too much. It's also given Colin something to focus his attention on, instead of his little brothers. I think this has turned out to be a better choice than I first thought it would be. Brennan is really freaked out, but he's getting better. The first night he wouldn't even let me put him down, and I've never heard him cry that way before. He was really afraid. He's gotten a little bit braver now. He's actually okay walking past Boomer if he's laying on the floor, and tonight even let him sniff him for a minute without starting to cry. Another week or so, and he should be okay with him. Just in time for us to go to DC for the weekend. He'll probably end up regressing.
I got the living room rearranged, and unpacked the rest of the boxes out there (I think). Still need to get stuff up on the walls, and finish unpacking the rest of the house. And I really need to start on my bedroom. It's a disaster, which is sort of amazing considering almost everything is still packed.
But anyway, that's all for tonight. Today seemed to be about three days long. I looked at the clock this morning and was shocked and dismayed that it was only 10, when I would have sworn it was at least lunchtime. The day didn't get much better from there. I'm exhausted, and we're going to church in the morning. Goodnight!
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
Sooo busy today!
Today was rather overcast and drizzley and yuck. And I just wasn't feeling like going to playgroup because Colin is the oldest one there by a long shot, and I was feeling sorry for him, even though he really doesn't care. I guess I was just being emotional because Matthew's gone.
So after doing a load of dishes and a breakfast ordeal involving far more omelets than I had intended to make (and really, if you're going to pick everything out of the omelet, why not just eat scrambled eggs?), we went to Target to look for a cake pan for Colin's birthday. Didn't find one there, but I did find some couch covers that I liked, so I got those, and some coordinating pillow cases for the pillows. Next stop, Michael's, where we found a 3-D car cake pan. I'm almost as excited about making it as Colin is to have a car cake!
After that we went to Chick-fil-A for lunch and playtime, and saw the pastor and another lady from church. I'm completely drawing a blank on her name (Denise? I don't think that's right), but she lives near our old house, and has a son a little older than Colin. They had a great time playing together.
After lunch we went to Sam's Club and Walmart, and got groceries and a bunch of stuff I've been putting off buying. Poor Brennan fell asleep between Sam's and Walmart, and I felt horrible about waking him up so we could finish shopping, but I really just wanted to get it done. And hey, it meant he and Colin both fell asleep early tonight! I put them to bed by 7:20, and they were both asleep by 8:30. Nikolai just fell asleep a few minutes ago, after fighting, spitting up, and everything else. Usual routine, not that I want to keep it that way. Ugh. I'm tired. Too tired to fold the laundry and wash the dishes that I've been trying to catch up on. But that's what tomorrow is for. There has to come a point every night where you say "enough". This point is it. I did clean up the living room after we got home, because I couldn't stand it anymore, and tired was one thing, but that messy was another. It got cleaned, and I got happy :)
Talked to Matthew for a bit, chatted with Misty online, now Heather's on the phone. I like having people to talk to.
I still haven't heard from our landlord about whether we can get the dog or not. As much as I want a dog on the one hand, I'm kind of hoping we don't get it on the other. We'll see what it turns out to be.
So after doing a load of dishes and a breakfast ordeal involving far more omelets than I had intended to make (and really, if you're going to pick everything out of the omelet, why not just eat scrambled eggs?), we went to Target to look for a cake pan for Colin's birthday. Didn't find one there, but I did find some couch covers that I liked, so I got those, and some coordinating pillow cases for the pillows. Next stop, Michael's, where we found a 3-D car cake pan. I'm almost as excited about making it as Colin is to have a car cake!
After that we went to Chick-fil-A for lunch and playtime, and saw the pastor and another lady from church. I'm completely drawing a blank on her name (Denise? I don't think that's right), but she lives near our old house, and has a son a little older than Colin. They had a great time playing together.
After lunch we went to Sam's Club and Walmart, and got groceries and a bunch of stuff I've been putting off buying. Poor Brennan fell asleep between Sam's and Walmart, and I felt horrible about waking him up so we could finish shopping, but I really just wanted to get it done. And hey, it meant he and Colin both fell asleep early tonight! I put them to bed by 7:20, and they were both asleep by 8:30. Nikolai just fell asleep a few minutes ago, after fighting, spitting up, and everything else. Usual routine, not that I want to keep it that way. Ugh. I'm tired. Too tired to fold the laundry and wash the dishes that I've been trying to catch up on. But that's what tomorrow is for. There has to come a point every night where you say "enough". This point is it. I did clean up the living room after we got home, because I couldn't stand it anymore, and tired was one thing, but that messy was another. It got cleaned, and I got happy :)
Talked to Matthew for a bit, chatted with Misty online, now Heather's on the phone. I like having people to talk to.
I still haven't heard from our landlord about whether we can get the dog or not. As much as I want a dog on the one hand, I'm kind of hoping we don't get it on the other. We'll see what it turns out to be.
Monday, May 3, 2010
Home Again
And here we have the reason for the name of the blog. We've moved, again. We're still in Jacksonville, but our landlords at the old house said they couldn't renew our lease this summer because one of their mothers would be moving in. Bummer. I hadn't wanted to move again this enlistment. And, that ended up tying for shortest amount of time we've lived in a house: eight months. The other one we lived in for eight months was our second house in Hawaii.
Our newest house is pretty nice. In some ways, I like it better than the last one. The back yard is even bigger, and more fun, and has a mulberry tree (!!! squee!!!), there's a playroom/second living room built onto the back, a huge shed, wood floors throughout, and only one bathroom. I'm happy about that because I really don't like cleaning bathrooms. Although the bad part is, I have two young boys who make it necessary to clean the bathroom almost every time I need to use it. You gain some, you lose some.
Some of the things I don't like: the only phone jack in the house is in Colin and Brennan's bedroom, our bedroom closet has the air filter thingummy in it, which takes up half the closet (which is tiny to begin with, so small, in fact, that we bought a freestanding storage closet unit that's bigger than the closet!) The laundry room is outside, there's no dishwasher, and the last people who lived here had problems with a Peeping Tom. Which leads me to:
I'm getting a dog. Male collie, three years old, named Boomer. I'd been debating, even while asking permission from our landlord, but Delaney next door came over and introduced herself this evening, and told me about that little incident, and that sealed the deal. Dog will be acquired as soon as I get the go-ahead. And no, I do not do laundry at night anymore.
I'm getting the house all cleaned and unpacked and in order, getting rid of more stuff (a perpetual task, just like doing the dishes or laundry). I've gotten horribly behind on the dishes, partially because I took Saturday off to spend the day with Matthew, and also on the laundry. The playroom was a disaster this morning, but has been cleaned up. Yesterday I unpacked eight boxes, the first boxes I'd unpacked in about a week. I don't know what I did all last week, but it must not have been anything useful, if I'm so far behind on everything now!
But anyway, the house is starting to feel like home again. I first started thinking of things in that perspective about a month after we got to Hawaii. Matthew was gone, and I'd just discovered one of Nathan's CDs in my CD case, Blackmore's Night, Fires at Midnight. There's a song on there called Home Again, and it's about travelling the world, and discovering that home is where you belong. One line that repeats in the chorus is "Oh, it's good to be back home again." I was listening to that song, nearly five years ago now, and realized that I was home again. I belonged there, then, in that little housing unit with my flowers and herbs on the porch, hardly anything in the house at that point, but it was ours, and it was home, even if Matthew was gone on an exercise. I was home. Each move, I've taken a deep breath, and smiled, and told myself I'm home again. Today has really been that day for me for this move. The living room is a little less "boxed", things are getting cleaner, my hot spots are occuring again, routines are falling into place. I'm home again. And I don't want to be anywhere else in the world.
Our newest house is pretty nice. In some ways, I like it better than the last one. The back yard is even bigger, and more fun, and has a mulberry tree (!!! squee!!!), there's a playroom/second living room built onto the back, a huge shed, wood floors throughout, and only one bathroom. I'm happy about that because I really don't like cleaning bathrooms. Although the bad part is, I have two young boys who make it necessary to clean the bathroom almost every time I need to use it. You gain some, you lose some.
Some of the things I don't like: the only phone jack in the house is in Colin and Brennan's bedroom, our bedroom closet has the air filter thingummy in it, which takes up half the closet (which is tiny to begin with, so small, in fact, that we bought a freestanding storage closet unit that's bigger than the closet!) The laundry room is outside, there's no dishwasher, and the last people who lived here had problems with a Peeping Tom. Which leads me to:
I'm getting a dog. Male collie, three years old, named Boomer. I'd been debating, even while asking permission from our landlord, but Delaney next door came over and introduced herself this evening, and told me about that little incident, and that sealed the deal. Dog will be acquired as soon as I get the go-ahead. And no, I do not do laundry at night anymore.
I'm getting the house all cleaned and unpacked and in order, getting rid of more stuff (a perpetual task, just like doing the dishes or laundry). I've gotten horribly behind on the dishes, partially because I took Saturday off to spend the day with Matthew, and also on the laundry. The playroom was a disaster this morning, but has been cleaned up. Yesterday I unpacked eight boxes, the first boxes I'd unpacked in about a week. I don't know what I did all last week, but it must not have been anything useful, if I'm so far behind on everything now!
But anyway, the house is starting to feel like home again. I first started thinking of things in that perspective about a month after we got to Hawaii. Matthew was gone, and I'd just discovered one of Nathan's CDs in my CD case, Blackmore's Night, Fires at Midnight. There's a song on there called Home Again, and it's about travelling the world, and discovering that home is where you belong. One line that repeats in the chorus is "Oh, it's good to be back home again." I was listening to that song, nearly five years ago now, and realized that I was home again. I belonged there, then, in that little housing unit with my flowers and herbs on the porch, hardly anything in the house at that point, but it was ours, and it was home, even if Matthew was gone on an exercise. I was home. Each move, I've taken a deep breath, and smiled, and told myself I'm home again. Today has really been that day for me for this move. The living room is a little less "boxed", things are getting cleaner, my hot spots are occuring again, routines are falling into place. I'm home again. And I don't want to be anywhere else in the world.
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