DMV Photo

My driver's license was up for renewal, so into the DMV I went. The photograph for the new license is always sort of an unsettling thing. I mean, driver's license pictures have a reputation for not being flattering and typically they live up to that reputation. So, after filling out the paperwork, waiting and then being called up for my photo, I was curious to see what it would look like. I stood before the blue curtain with a semi-smile on my face and the photo taker clicked the camera. I find a huge smile often does not look right, but I don't want to not smile, so the semi-smile, hopefully, conveys friendliness without looking too ecstatic.

In psat days, a photo was taken and then applied to the license and you walked out of the DMV with the new license in hand. Not so now. I was given a temporary license, until the new one arrived in the mail. The photo taker handed me my temporary license and, wow, the picture was really good! I was impressed and wondering if they offered photo packages. It was a really good picture! I couldn't wait to get my actual license! Then it arrived in the mail.

I opened the envelope and YIKES! How could the SAME picture look so good on the temporary license and look so, well, so NOT good on the actual license? I think the problem is in the color on the license picture. The temporary license was a grainy black and white picture. The real license is a color photo and the color is not so flattering. I look a bit washed out and my hair looks flatter in the color photo. Washed out, I can understand, but how can my hair look flatter? Weird!

Avocado Baby

One of my babies first foods is avocado. Currently baby L's lunch often consists of 1/2 of an avocado and a banana. I place the avocado and banana in the baby food grinder and serve. On occasion we substitute pear or apple for the banana, she likes all of these variations.

Recently, we were delighted to receive the book Avocado Baby by John Burningham as a gift. It is a cute read and delighted my 3 and 5 year olds. One caution, the book has a "burglar" in it. They didn't know what that was and were a little concerned about burglars after the first reading, but the concern was short lived. Besides that we had a great fun imagining all the "strong" things our baby could do after eating her avocado.

While on the topic of John Burningham, I also want to recommend, Mr Gumpy's Outing. That is one of our all-time favorite books. I am sure our copy has been read well over a hundred times.

All Life Has Value

This little documentary is worth watching! These two parents are a true picture of sacrificial love and faith in the soverignty of God.

Here is the blog if you want to read more.

Here is another blog of another family that is lovingly raising their special needs son. It has blessed me each time I read up here.

The Truth About Cats and Dogs

The stereotypical view is that dogs hate cats. Yet, we have all seen the adorable pictures of some huge dog with a tiny kitty quietly sleeping while nestled up to the dog. It is a precious and adorable picture. We have also seen cats outsmart the dog that chases them. The “wise” cat runs up a tree just in the nick of time or the cat claws the dog’s nose and the dog wimpers off.

At our house, the truth is the stereotypical view of a dog who hates cats and a variety of other critters. Well, not just hates them, but sees them as an enemy to be chased and devoured. I guess truthfully, I don’t see much hate in it. It is just how our dog is wired. “See small critter, must chase and, if possible, catch it and then eat it.” I had a glimpse of this tendency in our dog two weeks ago when I found a dead baby possum along with some other tufts of fur, from, I am guessing, another possum that had already been devoured, in his kennel.

Twice Stoag has “caught” one of our cats. Thankfully he is an incredibly obedient dog and the second his name was called, he dropped the cat and went on his merry way. The cat, scared from the close encounter with death, limped off somewhere to regain her dignity.

That has been the story, until last night. We were finishing up dinner and I left the table for a moment and then heard C yelling outside. Somehow, Stoag had gotten out of his kennel, we are still unsure if he figured out how to unhook the latch or if his kennel was not latched. Whatever the case, he flew out of there after Junebug, our cat, and by the time C heard the commotion and called Stoag back, Junebug was in bad shape.

Our guess is that she received a bite across her body that caused irreparable internal damage. She crawled under the deck. M was gone for the evening, the vet was not on call this one night and the kids and I needed to leave for the evening. We made Junebug as comfortable as possible and when we arrived home we were not able to find her.

Last night was a lunar eclipse, so M and I set our alarm to get up and watch that. We sat on the steps and watched the eclipse and then we heard a moaning meow. Junebug was under the steps of our front deck and we could tell she was dying. I won’t go into the final details of it all, but this morning around 7am we finally buried our 11 year old Siamese cat. Our stubborn, cranky, beloved Siamese cat. And she met her end in such a stereotypical way…chased down by a dog.

I had prepared the kids, as in, I had talked with them about how Stoag could and would kill a cat if he was given the opportunity. We discussed how he was not being “bad” he was just doing what dogs do sometimes. But, when the moment actually comes, it is still the loss of a beloved pet by the attack of another beloved pet.

Great Reads!

I am getting our schooling lined out for September. This web site is so great! It has lists of good books for different grade levels. Go check it out. C takes her list to the library and uses it to help her select books. I am starting to compile a list of books on tape or CD for the boys to listen to in the coming year and this list has been super helpful.

Praying or Preying Mantis

So went the discussion when this large bug was found on our door sill. We captured it and placed it into our "bug hotel." M and I discussed whether it was a "Praying" or a "Preying" Mantis. It is a "Praying" Mantis, although based on this incident, it seems "preying" is appropriate as well. Yikes!

A friend told me about this web site, it is called "What's That Bug?" and is a handy resource for identifying an unknown bug. This web site on bugs is pretty cool as well.

Homemade Jam, The Directions

Yesterday I mentioned my homemade jam. Here is the scoop on what I did:

I bought this pectin. I found it at Wal-Mart for over a dollar less per box than this web site's price. I just chose that link because it has a good picture. Also, inside the boxes there was a coupon for 50 cents off.

The basic jam directions are found inside the box of pectin. I used the freezer jam recipes. For the plum jam and the blackberry jam there was not a freezer jam recipe.

For the blackberry freezer jam I used the raspberry freezer jam directions and used apple juice instead of the other suggestion of cranberry-raspberry juice. I doubled the recipe and used about 3/4 cup of honey to sweeten it.

The inside wrapper has a "Guidelines For Adding Sugar" box. It has instructions for sweetening with sugar, splenda, other artificial sweeteners or honey. I used about half the amount of suggested honey for my recipe quantity. The jam is a bit tart, next time I may use a bit more honey. I don't mind tartness, but C prefers it a bit sweeter, so next time I may sweeten it a bit more. The nice thing is that the sweetener is the last ingredient added so you can taste test it to see how you like it. Then you can add a little more if desired.

For the plum jam, I based my amount of fruit on the cooked jam recipe for plum jam-I weighed my fruit after putting it through the colander. I did steam my plums for a few minutes, until the skins started to split. Then put them into a cone colander, I guess that is what it is called. It is shaped like a cone and has a wooden thing that is used to smash the fruit up. The skins and seeds stay in the colander and the fruit squishes out into a bowl. I usually use it for applesauce. Again I used apple juice and I used the suggested amount of honey, about 1 cup per recipe. The plums are sour enough on their own and the honey gave the jam a wonderful flavor as well as sweetening it.

For the peach jam, I used the peach freezer jam recipe, using apple juice instead of the other suggestion of white grape juice. I had apple juice on hand and was already using it. I also added the suggested amount of lemon juice and a small amount of honey. The peaches used were very sweet already.

Happy jam making!

Homemade Jam

Some years ago, I attempted to make plum freezer jam. It was a flop. The flavor was great, but the jam never did set up. It was more like syrup. As a result, jam making took a back seat in the midst of a busy life. This year, I decided to tackle making jam again. We went and picked blackberries and I decided to try a batch of jam. I was thrilled to find "no sugar needed" pectin-it calls for using fruit juice and includes instructions for using a variety of sweeteners, some of which are technically a "sugar" but not the standard white sugar. That appealed to me.

I decided to use apple juice and honey as my sweeteners. I made the blackberry jam and it was ridiculously easy to make. And it set up quite nicely. I was beyond pleased with the whole process. Back to the store I went. I bought supplies for making more jam. This time I wanted to try plum jam and peach jam.
These plums were picked off of my parent's plum tree. The same tree that I picked plums off of when I was younger. That thrilled me in a nostalgic way. There were my kids and I picking off of the same tree. And the jam, oh, it turned out to be so yummy!

The next day we bought peaches at the farmer's market and made peach jam. I get such a thrill when I open my freezer and see my containers of homemade, honey sweetened jam. I am amazed that something so easy brings me so much satisfaction.

O Happy Baby!

I have wanted to begin a series on products or services that work for me and our family. When you find a good thing, you just want to share! Everyone has different things that make their life easier or more enjoyable and this series "just have to share" is where I will be shareing about some of the things that contribute to my having a higher quality of life, a little bit of happiness in the midst of the daily grind. So, the first item I want talk about is the Happy Baby Food Mill.

After having three babies, I am realizing what products and items were a great investment and what things were a waste, for me anyway. I was first loaned the Happy Baby Food Mill when I had my first born. I loved it! I used it all the time. Then before I was even pregnant with baby #2, I found one at a garage sale and grabbed it. Here I am with baby #3 and still grinding baby food like crazy! For lunch l has 1 banana and 1/2 of an avacado. I place the fruit in the grinder and grind it up and it is ready for her to eat. Last night we had spaghetti and some summer squash (well, l and I had summer squash-no one else eats it). I placed some spaghetti and squash into the grinder and she ate what we ate. So easy and as she is developing her taste preferences she is developing tastes for the food we already eat. Here is an interesting article on babies developing taste preferences even before solids.

The Happy Baby Food Mill makes it super easy to feed baby healthy homemade meals. Ideally, I would recommend having 2 of them (maybe even three depending on how often it is used). I considered buying another one and just didn't get around to it. I usually wash it between uses so that it is all ready for the next meal. So, while I believe 2 or 3 would be ideal, I have always had 1, myself, and it has worked out.

Thoughtful

The other night M had arranged a date night for the two of us. We planned for him to drop off the kids and our van at my parent’s house and for me to take the car to get gas and then come back and pick him up. A little background…M almost always drives when we are in the car together, it is just what works for us both. He really likes to drive and I drive plenty on my own and with the kids, so it gives me a break to actually look out the window and enjoy the view and to play with the radio.
I had gassed up the car and was driving back to pick M up. He hopped into the passenger side and off we went. I thought that was a little different, but no big deal. After driving a bit, I asked, “Why did you get into the passenger side?” He replied, “I knew you wanted to phone in our order to the restaurant so it would be ready when we got there, and I know that reading in the car makes you feel sick, so I figured that you could drive and I could go over the menu and call in the order for us.” Okay, so that is super sweet! How thoughtful!
Such a little thing, yet he knows me and was looking for a way to take care of me. Such a little thing, but those little things mean so much in a marriage. I don’t like to complain about reading in the car because I feel a little wimpy, but it does make me sick, so it was very kind of him to just take care of it for me.

Some Quotes

"Silly things do cease to be silly if done by sensible people in an imprudent way."

"Wisdom is better than wit, and in the long run will certainly have the laugh on her side."

~Jane Austin

"Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing ever happened."

"For myself I am an optimist-it does not seem to be much use being anything else."

~Winston Churchill

"Only dull people are brilliant at breakfast." =)

~Oscar Wilde

To Consider Before Watching

I just read this review of the new Jane Austin movie, Becoming Jane. You may want to read it before going to the movie. A little disappointing to read about it. I say just go see Bourne Ultimatum instead=).

I am not a big fan of T.V. I won't go into all my reasons in this post, maybe in a future one... We currently do not have any television hooked up, we do have a monitor, but it is used only for the occasional video. This is just our personal choice and I do not think ill of television viewers. My husband and I are both recovering television addicts, so we can relate to enjoying watching, we have just currently made a different choice for our home.

Okay so I am not a big fan of T.V., and I am really not a fan of television for young children. Again, I won't go into all my reasons here, but click on the link and read up a little for yourself. New research on Baby Einstein is worth reading. How sad that so many well-meaning adults have bought something that now looks to not just be a waste of time for children, but a potential danger for them. Read and be informed. Each family has to decide what is going to work for them in regard to the television, but at least read up so that you can make an informed decision about age appropriateness, amount of television watched and that sort of thing.

My Broken Heart

A and B were chasing each other around the house. Now, I know that it is a generally accepted standard that people should not run in houses, unless there happens to be a fire or other urgent happening, but I don’t strictly adhere to that standard. I just tend to say things like, “now, boys don’t be too wild” or “please don’t run in the kitchen.” I use the second one if I happen to be working in the kitchen. Or I will sometimes address the situation this way, “why don’t you go outside” or “mom, can’t handle wildness right now.”

So today my boys are chasing each other and cracking up. I exclaim, “be careful boys.” And usually they are. But today, B was shoved, all in good play, I might add, and my heart was bumped and knocked onto the floor where it broke. This is a sweet, quirky ceramic heart magnet that I have had for ages and there it lay broken. As soon as this happen I noticed the vultures, aka “big sister” and “big brother” exclaim, one after the other, in their nastiest voices, “B, you broke it!” Then one of them added, “you broke mom’s heart!” I was in the other room and had to smile at that.

So I called B to me. He is a tender soul beneath his at times rough and tumble exterior. There were no tears, but I could tell he felt terrible! He was on the verge of a meltdown, but was holding it all in. I just pulled him onto my lap and held him. I told him that it was okay, that he needed to be careful, but that he was more important than any magnet. I liked that magnet, but I love my B! A magnet is no big deal, but B does need to remember to be careful, because sometimes when we aren’t careful, we can accidentally break a heart that really does matter.

I think, by God’s grace, I was able to handle this situation with the perspective that B is so much more important than a magnet, because I forgot that my child is more valuable than an item last week. This week I held him, reassured him and then we went and bought some super glue and put the heart back together.

Last week I found my swing, this very swing that I really do enjoy, had been cut with some left out garden clippers. A had created “fringe” on my swing. The problem is that when the cords are cut, the swing looses strength and can’t hold as much weight. And it no longer creates the comfortable seat that it was.

When I discovered the “fringe” of cut cords, I was ticked! Oh, I was angry! And in my anger I was a vulture to A. I said mean words to him “you just ruined my swing, what were you thinking!??!!” I felt awful for being so angry, he felt terrible and my swing was still fringy. My anger didn’t solve a thing, it only created more damage, reparable, but really unnecessary. Which takes me back to my thought this week, the thought that grew out of my acting in anger, “sometimes when we aren’t careful, we can accidentally break a heart that really does matter.” That is why self-control is so vital! Self-control for a small person running in the house and self-control for bigger siblings witnessing an accident caused by their little brother, and self-control for mom, who just had something she cares about ruined by someone she loves even more!

Watching the “Mediums”

When raising young ones, many things are done irregardless of efficiency and convenience. Many times while doing some activity that is not going as I had planned, I find myself silently yelling “Why am I doing this?” or “What was I thinking?” in my mind. Then I calm down and silently remind myself that:
1) This adventure is helping to create a wonderful memory and honestly, most of the best memories are of things that have not gone according to “the plan.”
2) My children are exploring and enjoying new things.
3) They are learning to respond when things do not go as planned. Hopefully I can model something worth imitating.
4) They get to see the value of getting out and doing things even if it is not the most convenient thing to do.

So, we planned to watch the meteor shower last night. This kept the kids up WAY past their bedtime and M even decided it would be a great time to have our first summer family sleepover on the deck-sounded great to me! The kids were super excited and A talked all day about watching the “mediums” that night. He also had a little hesitation about sleeping outside and several times told me that he would sleep inside, “just in case anybody needs anything.” How considerate.=)

The beds were made and set up on the deck and we all laid there for a while. The boys bounced around. The time of the meteor shower was still quite a ways off. It was decided that L would sleep inside, she is so little that sleeping outside would not work so well and I would sleep inside with her in case she woke and needed something. But M and the other three kids would sleep outside.

After awhile everyone started to get sleepy so I decided to go in and sleep for a bit. Then, B decided to join me inside. So, I went to bed for about an hour and set my alarm to get up in time to watch the meteors. The alarm went off and I jumped up, I love this sort of thing! I tried waking B, but it was useless, so I carried him out with me. Everyone outside was asleep. I woke up M and laid down. And waited…and waited…then there were some small shooting stars, or “mediums” traveling across the sky. I tried to wake A to have him look, but he was conked out.

I called to C, several times, before I realized that she wasn’t there. Apparently a mosquito had buzzed her head and she went inside to sleep. Hmmm…so I laid back down and waited and waited for a few more small meteors, and there was such joy in hearing M say, “oh there was one!” I was not totally alone in this thing! Then a HUGE meteor streaked across the sky and I called to M, he had rolled over and by the time he rolled back over he saw the fading light it had left across the sky. Then he fell asleep. And it was just me, enjoying the peaceful night sky and shooting stars. Beautiful! I was relishing the peacefulness and remembering the astronomy class I had taken years ago and loved, and a bat flew awfully close, several times by my head. That was it, enough nature for one night. I scooped B back up and we came in and went back to sleep in the house. M and A are the only two who survived the entire night outside. But, it was a good thing anyway and hopefully next August we will be back for another sleepover on the deck.

Meteor Shower

Get ready for a great show this Sunday night! The annual meteor shower is supposed to be a good one this year. Bundle the kids up and set out the lawn chairs, or better yet just set everyone up to sleep outside, if that works for you and your family. This article has some interesting history as well as tips for observing the meteors.

Field Burning

Two days ago the kids and I went and watched the burning of a field. Each summer fields are burned as a way of "cleaning" the field of disease and pests. It is the source of much controversy in this area, but for me it is just part of summer in an agricultural area. All the burning takes place in a matter of days, the days are spread out over a bit of time, but generally it all takes place in about 4 (that is a guess) days. I don't mind it one bit.

I have heard people rant about how terrible it is, but honestly, right across the street from me some building developer is ripping out a bunch of trees that are on the perimeter of some land that is being developed for houses and no one is complaining about that. Field burning greatly reduces the need to use pesticides and it is over in a very short amount of time. The trees that have been removed take years and years to grow and trees can actually help improve air quality and now they are gone.

Here is an interesting site on facts vs. myths of field burning. It is from Idaho farmers, but very applicable information for our area.

I enjoyed this post on a visitors perspective on field burning.

Food For My Soul

Buying flowers...I love the idea, I tell myself that I should purpose to buy some flowers, but then I don't do it. Why...well, I can come up with several very flimsy excuses and as pathetic as the excuses are, the are successful in keeping me from buying flowers. There is something so delightful about fresh flowers in the house and we live near a flower stand that is ridiculously inexpensive. In fact, the woman who has the flower stand is an acquaintance and she was at the local farmer's market recently. She talked me into buying this stem which had one open flower and several more waiting to open. As I write this it has 4 open flowers and one more that will soon open. It is delightful to smell and to look at. And since my place is still in process and has a limited amount of flowers right now, it is a joy to have this one. This flower may have won me over! This may have been the experience that I have needed to remind myself how good it is to have flowers, as food for my soul, in the house.

"When you have only two pennies left in the world, buy a loaf of bread with one, and a lily with the other."

~Chinese Proverb

Interesting Links

Today I want to share some links of things that I have found interesting:

This article talks about polution in water from birth control pills.

This post is a great one and challenges those of us who are pro-life to evaluate just how we live that out day in and day out. It is worth reading!

This is an article on modesty.

And another article on modesty. This one is an interview with Wendy Shalit.

Today I added some links on modesty. See my sidebar for them and check out the sites.

My Mom's Tunes

My mom cracks me up. Today she was taking A and C into town with her. As I opened the door to her car to put in a booster seat. I was a little startled to see CD’s strewn across the back floor of the car. My mom’s car is usually very tidy and she is not a CD strewn across the floor of the car type of person. So, the story gets funnier, here are the CD’s across the floor, like some college student, and upon closer inspection of the CD’s I had to laugh, there were two John Tesh and one Kenny G-Rock on Mom!

Wrapping it up...

Cabinets and all, they, of course, now have doors, but for some reason I stopped taking pictures after a certain point...

My favorite table...all set up in the dining area...

The outside...it is still not painted...but as I wrote before...all in due time, it is so much more of a house than we had anticipated...good thing we dreamed all those years before we got here so that we basically knew what we wanted...

today and tomorrow and then I move on to posts about something besides the house

It felt like we waited a long time to own a house. Both M and I longed for a place of our own, a place that truly reflected us, a place that we could afford and a place that was a relaxing refuge as well as suitable for hospitality. Over the years we had collected many ideas and sketched many house plans-all dreams...

Bamboo flooring...that was the flooring I wanted, but there was trouble finding the right shade, the right price...then one day M was walking through Costco and they had some, it was a nice rich, warm color and the price made it a better deal than any of the other flooring options we had considered...we grabbed it and have enjoyed it so much...here you see C opening the packages so it could acclimate to our house...

Paint! I wanted color up on the walls ASAP, but in order to get moved in sooner we went with our basic white all over...eventually that white will be the trim and we plan to get some color up...all in due time...the walls are still this white, except for C's room...

Ahhhh...I am so happy with the flooring...it was a blessing to find it!

The House is Progressing...

Wow, it is really taking shape here...

My pregnant self...funny how when pregnant it seems like forever and now, less than a year later, pregnancy is a foggy memory...

The trees turning colors last year...this was taken in October. Since we have quite a few trees this place is a wonderful for enjoying the seasonal changes. Each season brings a unique look and feel. I enjoy living in a place with distinct seasons.

Insulation, electrical, doors, windows...thankfully M knows so much about building and for what he did not know...thankfully we have so many gracious friends and acquaintances who were willing to help in the form or advice or labor or both!