I Had Better Write Now, Before The Holiday Season Overtakes Me.

Sorry, no pictures to share right now.  My sister left me with a few, and I have a couple of our backyard makeover, but not on this computer at this moment.  I will try to post them.  But, when I wait for the time to find and upload the pics, I somehow don't get around to writing for a really long time...as you may have noticed.

So- recent events:  My awesome sister and bro-in-law came and magically transformed our tiny yard into something usable and pretty.  Yay!  Eating dinner out there with the tiki torches lit is now my children's favorite family activity.  We also went around and saw some fun stuff while they were here- like the Pali lookout, the Byodin Temple, and of course, we went to several beaches :).  Great fun, and I'm so glad they could come out!  Oh, and did I mention my sister also cleaned out my nursery (formerly the junk room) and made me get rid of a bunch of clothes from high school?!  It was great.  I love that room now.  And it was an inspiration.  I'm continuing to get rid of clothes I never wear, and going through the boys' clothes again too.  I'm also just putting random "things" into a large trash bag and stashing it in the closet to see if I'll miss them over the next 6 months.  If I don't need anything in the bags, I can get rid of them, right?!

Currently, I'm 34 weeks along, and no longer sleeping, due to a ramped up case of RLS.  It's okay, I have a new mantra. "6 more weeks, 6 more weeks."   Then I probably won't sleep for the next year anyway...

I'm also looking up fun traditions for Christmas (usually for hours in the middle of the night, since I can't sleep anyway.)  I'll make a list with links when I'm done :).  And, trying out Mark Bittman recipes.  I made homemade hummus today, and bean burgers.  The hummus was gone within minutes.  The burgers, on the other hand, were force fed to my children as I promised to try a different recipe next time.  The appeal was that they took 10 minutes to make, and I love fast and easy meals.  But I didn't have a food processor so I used my Vitamix, which made them too soupy, so I added cornmeal....yeah, well, they were edible...barely.

Everyone is well and happy.  We're very blessed.  I'm going to at least try (for the first time since I married Shawn) to produce a Christmas card/family news letter.  No promises.  I'm just going to actually make the attempt.

Midsummer Update

Cooking club every Friday has been a hit!  After deviled eggs we learned ants-on-a-log and fruit salad, dirt cups, personal pizzas and smoothies, and today was yogurt parfaits- because it was easy. 

 Science class has been fun too- for the kids.  I thought it was an overkill, but everyone apparently liked the 30 ft. homemade slip n' slide.  Crazy people.

And these are just bonus pictures, because life is fun.  Pushups with Dad, and the Polynesian Cultural Center (the main character of the night show).

Here's The Plan, Man

About the time I had several rowdy boys (not mine) jumping around on the furniture I decided we needed a little structure this summer.  The kids in the neighborhood are bored.  When they get bored, some of the kids get together and bully other kids, pick on each other, or just get cranky, and wild. 

So, today was COOKING CLUB.  Every Friday at 10:00.  And we had so much interest that I think we’ll have to split into two groups, an older group and a younger one.  I didn’t think the older boys would come in force like that.  We started with something simple: deviled eggs.  Easy right?  Try teaching10 kids how to make them while the baby screams and holds on to your legs.  (I finally sedated him with a bottle.)  But it all worked out with minimal mess, and they loved them.  I’ve had requests for pie and kabobs, but in order to preserve my waning sanity, next week is actually much easier than either.  I’ve noticed kids have a hard time waiting for things to cook or set, so before I try anything where they have a prolonged wait, I will have to think up some crafts to fill up the waiting time. 

I’m currently trying to decide on a time for story time in the park :), and art.  The outside/water games will be a little more random, and more organized pillow fights have been requested.  I’ve promised the kids I’d post a schedule on my door at the beginning of the week so they’ll know when stuff is happening, with a list of stuff they need to bring, if anything.  What have I gotten myself into?!  At least my kids are happy, and will probably have plenty to do.  Now excuse my while I scour the internet for creative ideas that will help me survive the summer.

A Long Day

Today is election day.  Also a holiday for all the children in the neighborhood- which means I had little success getting mine to stay inside and do their schoolwork today.  They did a little this morning.  But right now, there are about 8 children on my porch playing with Demetri’s CSI forensic entomology kit.  What does a bug kit have to do with CSI?  As nearly as I can tell, nothing...just hype to help make the kids want to buy the product.  Anyway, my kids, and all the neighborhood kids, seem to love it!  They’ve been catching insects and studying them for days now, from the time everyone gets home from school till dinnertime or dark, whichever comes first.

Okay, yeah, that was this morning.  As for this evening, I don’t have anything nice to say about the election, fellow Americans, etc.  Really. Nothing.  So we’ll end it there. Oh, except that Olie said to me this morning, “I vote for Jesus!” High point of the day.

Xander is teething.  His gums are swollen, he has a high fever, and he alternated between crying and sleeping on my lap all day.  Well, this is the second day.  Poor baby.  No sleep, getting nothing done, all the normal stuff for teething time.

Demetri made dinner, mostly.  They are going to learn how to cook if they have to live at home until they are 30.  Okay, so I’ll probably kick them out before that.  But they will know how to cook...and launder clothes...and clean, etc.  They each have a night to make dinner again.  Amazing how hard it is to get back into the groove after you’ve been traveling for a while.  We’re getting there.

I’m winning the war.  Every cockroach I’ve seen in the last 2 days has been dead.  That puts a smile on my face.  But, lest they should break through the ranks, I must not become complacent and slack off!  At least it keeps the house clean.

I have been called to cub scouts.  Again.  For the third time- and so far, in every place I have lived in the past 4 years. I should give in and buy the uniform this time, and accept that I’ll probably be in cub scouts for the next 10 years or more. 

New Ideas about Food

I believe I’ve recently mentioned that menu planning and food preparation while traveling gets both old and difficult fairly quickly.  If my children and my palate could handle peanut butter and jelly 3 times a day we’d be good, no problem.  But neither are cooperative with this arrangement for long.  I have tried a variety of things I’ve never tried before.  For instance, microwave dinners.  After three nights of them I was ready to go back to peanut butter and jelly sandwiches permanently.  The companies who stock the freezer section even know how to ruin spaghetti.  I didn’t know that was possible- I can even handle seriously overcooked noodles.  So plan B was…well there wasn’t one, or I wouldn’t have resorted to microwave food in the first place.  However, I became very diligent at looking up ideas on the internet.

I found a site called greensmoothiegirl.com.  It seems to be somewhat of a fad diet, but she calls it a lifestyle change and after my diet I was willing to try anything.  The idea of a 60-80% raw diet looked very appealing (as I didn’t have any cooking appliances anyway, after we switched hotels I didn’t even have a microwave), and I started to look up the concept of “whole” foods.  I’m interested!  So the plan at the moment, is to buy a Blendtec as soon as I can muster up the will to push the button that causes me to spend $400, as a birthday present to mwah, and incorporate as many smoothies and salads as I can comfortably handle into our family’s diet, while eliminating most of the junk…and you’d be surprised at what I consider junk.  I don’t expect amazing results while traveling, and we’ve been doing tons of salads anyway, but I hope to continually improve.

I guess I've always had some weird ideas about food, but friends and fam beware...it's getting weirder.  People ask me if I'm a vegetarian.  I guess I'm not officially, but I don't cook meat pretty much at all anymore, I just eat it when I go out.  It's been a gradual process.  I learned what kale is, and arugula, and lots of other types of vegetables that caused the checker at the grocery store lots of grief trying to find out what the items were and then price them.

Anyway, I'm finding it's actually quite fun to eat mostly whole foods, although considerably more expensive.

I’m Melting, I’m Melting!

Can you guess what the picture is of?  So some people store things in their oven, and some don’t.  I don’t, my sister-in-law does.  I didn’t check the oven before turning it on to make biscuits.  The sad part is, I knew the large plastic bowl of granola was in there!  She’d told me that morning, but I’d forgotten by dinner time.  It wasn’t pretty, and I spent a lot of time cleaning it up.  I ran to the store and got oven cleaner, scrubbed it down the next morning, and in the afternoon.  My only consolation is that the oven looks better now than before I melted the plastic in it.  Now to find another plastic bowl and lid of that gargantuan size!

The Smoothie Incident

I’ve been meaning to post for a while…yeah, good intentions and all that. 

So, last week's highlights:

We bought, put up, and decorated our Christmas tree.  The children also strung lights throughout various parts of the house.  Unfortunately there are no pictures of their decorating, because Shawn’s camera broke in China and the one I bought for his birthday is still on its way here due to several complications.  So you’ll just have to take my word for it- for the first time in my life (that I can remember) we have a tree up before the week of Christmas (usually on Christmas Eve).  I don’t know if that’s a good thing or a bad thing, but the kids sure had fun.

We made cinnamon rolls, a garlic-parmesan focaccia bread that didn’t really turn out very well, bread, home-made pizza, and the kids are once again taking turns making dinner.  I even have a 3-week menu that I laboriously planned, complete with shopping list.  However, I did not plan well enough.  I failed to remember which nights were going to be impossible to make something like lasagna or chili-from-scratch because of homework.  The menu has now been “rearranged” significantly.

 
I bought stocking stuffers and Christmas candy, and hid them.  Since I hid them instead of having Shawn hide them…I’m going to have to go buy more Christmas candy before Christmas.  I’m sure I can find something the children will like better than dark chocolate and peanut butter/ dark chocolate with almonds anyway.

Oh yes, and the smoothie.  Sometimes I don’t put all the food away right after lunch.  I get busy putting children down for naps and possibly get distracted by something else.  Maybe I will learn my lesson.  After one normal lunch hour all the boys were standing around peering into the yogurt container.  Demetri thought it smelled funny.  When I checked, I did smell soap, but assumed it was from all the little hands that were very near the yogurt container.  When I made a smoothie the next evening to go with dinner (because I was craving one), it looked gorgeous.  But it tasted like soap.  Yep, it really was soap in the yogurt.  Although I felt sad for Olie, who was the only one who didn’t get a smoothie that night, I was still rather upset about pouring an entire blender-full of frozen fruit down the sink.  My big question was “WHY?”  Who goes around putting hand soap in the yogurt?!  We’ll chalk it up to a science experiment gone wrong, and little boys who wonder “what would happen if…”

Holidays

I’ve learned how to make several things I’ve never tried since I’ve been here.  So far, I’ve made breakfast casserole, ramen salad, and manicotti.  We finished the apple pie filling and made applesauce.  Hooray!  The criterion apples we just bought are so delicious. 

Jeri and her family are here.  Teddy and Audri have been fighting all day, just like Jana and Justin used to.  Picture two children clinging to the legs of their respective mommies shouting “My mommy” “No, my mommy” at each other. 

I’m extremely grateful for the router my mom bought while I was here.  Not only does it mean I can use my laptop while someone else uses the desktop, but I’m getting rather large and uncomfortable now and it’s much nicer to sit on a couch than in an uncomfortable kitchen chair for hours on end while I do homework.  Speaking of which, Jer is going to take pictures of my ever growing belly tomorrow, which may well show up on my blog soon.  I’m up at night a lot with restless legs…so far my least favorite pregnancy symptom.  Everything else is going pretty well.

 I love Thanksgiving.  I'm excited to see all my aunts and uncles, brothers and sisters, and tons of cousins.  We don't all get together very often.

Getting off the couch...

I’m supposed to be making a pirate ship birthday cake.  I will get to it very soon.  I’ve been very sick, very whiny and cranky (poor Shawn), and have had a difficult time getting through each day.  I’m sure I’ll feel better soon; this doesn’t last forever.  Shawn did the dishes for me this evening :).  And the boys even helped clean up after dinner.  I’m going to stick a movie in my laptop and get going on this cake. 

I need to stop stressing.  I’m sure everything will work out.  I’m going to have the baby either in California or Idaho, and we’ll pick where as we figure out what will work best.  If the car breaks down we’ll live, and I don’t need to worry about where we’re going to be stationed next.  I don’t have any say in it anyway and it’s still 9 more months away. 

The little boys think playing school is fun, and Demetri thinks writing is the most horrible thing he has to do every day.  I hope it changes as he gets better at it.  Next week we’re turning in registration for a play.  Demetri’s going to try “A Pocketful of Rhymes” and see how he likes acting.  The opportunities here are wonderful and I thought we should take advantage of them for the short time we’re here.  (Besides, it keeps me busy and forces me to get dressed and leave the house.)

Pirate ship cake here I come!