Pancake Chronicles

my kids are weird...

2012-02-11T13:41:00.000-05:00

...really, really weird.

What? You want examples? Fine.

A couple of days ago, we finished the last of the pickles we had. Sarah and Natalie immediately wanted two straws. Yes, they wanted to drink the pickle juice. This isn't the first time they've drained the pickle jar after all the pickles were gone. It is the first time they used straws. It was like an old-fashioned soda shoppe, only they were sharing pickle juice instead of ice cream soda. I'd rather have the soda, personally.

Natalie prefers things cold. She will drain a cup of cold coffee in approximately 2.2 seconds. She loves the baked oatmeal recipe I make, and she usually eats about half the batch. She likes it cold though (can I just say right now that cold oatmeal just freaks me out a bit? Even more than pickle juice!).

Natalie also named one of her wounds the other day. I wish I'd thought to take a picture so I could properly introduce you to "Mark the Scratch." That one actually makes sense. A scratch is a mark on the body. Perfectly logical.

I still think gulping pickle juice and eating cold oatmeal is weird though.

Nelson says I can't blame his genes.

My grandfather liked cold eggs.

word order

2012-02-09T20:35:00.001-05:00

Language is funny. In Latin, the order of words in a sentence does not matter one whit. Puella poetam amat means the same thing as poetam puella amat. Scramble the words around any old way; it won't change the meaning. It's the ending on the words themselves that dictates meaning, not word order.

This is not so with English. The girl loves the poet does not mean the same thing as the poet loves the girl. Order matters.

Most children seem to get word order "wrong" at some point. Both girls went through phases where they would say, "Carry you?" when in fact they wanted me to carry them. This morning, Natalie woke up before Sarah. Natalie started munching some granola for breakfast. Knowing that Sarah would be up soon and would also want some granola as well, Natalie proclaimed her desire to share with her sister. "I want to feed my Sarah to the granola!"

get it?

2012-02-02T18:06:00.001-05:00

Sarah loves jokes right now. She loves watching The Muppet Show for the music and the guest stars, but she also loves the jokes (bad as some of them are). She loves a game on her Leapster that tells jokes. She tells all the jokes she knows, over and over again.

She keeps trying her hand at making up her own jokes. Unfortunately, she hasn't quite figured exactly how jokes work, so her own usually fall somewhat flat. They are either not funny, make no sense, or both. An example would be this morning's attempt: "How do cats like their eggs? Meowed!"

However, she did have one successful effort. Yesterday she came up with this one: "What do you call a chicken with no feathers? Dinner!"

interesting...

2012-01-28T15:54:00.002-05:00

So we've all had colds or something. Nelson came down with it first. Natalie succumbed next. Sarah and I followed. Yuck all around.

But here's the interesting part: Nelson and Sarah never got as sick as Natalie and I did. When he first felt the onset of the sniffles and sore throat, Nelson started drinking Emergen-C and taking zinc tablets. I had read that zinc could both shorten the duration and lessen the severity of colds. I gave Sarah some zinc when she first started feeling poorly as well. Unfortunately, I didn't have a form of zinc that Natalie could take, and I kept flat-out forgetting to take it.

So Nelson and Sarah didn't get as sick and didn't stay sick as long. Natalie and I got progressively worse, and Natalie ended up with a nasty case of pink eye. My advice? Take your zinc!

Now for the science nerds out there, I do realize that this is anecdotal evidence and not true scientific data. I also know the old line that "the plural of anecdote is not data." However, it is good food for thought.

update on goals and projects

2012-01-26T12:32:00.002-05:00

January is almost over, and I've accomplished about half of what I had intended for the month. "The best laid schemes of mice and men..." As many know, a round of sickness hit our house. We have some sort of nasty cold or something, and Natalie got pink eye.

However, here is what I DO have done so far:
1. I read the e-book on blogging. I have also been taking a weekly blogging class.
2. I read the e-book on AP style. May I just confess that I don't like AP style? Obviously, I am going to have to get comfortable with it, but I don't like it. I have not taken the proofreading test yet--I figured taking it when I felt awful wasn't a great idea.
3. I am about 2/3 of the way through David Allen's Getting Things Done. (Irony: reading his book is one of the things I'm having a hard time "getting done.")
4. I am partway through a You Version reading plan.
5. This afternoon I will have my first two loaves of sourdough bread. This has been an interesting experiment, let me tell you. I would not recommend trying something new like this when you feel as rotten as I have felt this week. But I had mixed up the starter before the plague hit, so I figured I might as well go ahead and put it to use. We'll see how it turns out.
6. I am taking a "J-term" class at church (I missed one class due to the sickness).
7. The girls have started their Kindermusik classes. Thanks, Uncle Dave! (Natalie actually missed her first class, due to the pink eye. She was quite bummed.)

We aren't as yet making much progress on decluttering. Hopefully once we feel better, that will change. The girls' new insurance info came, so I also plan to call for an eye appointment for Sarah within the next week or so (she complains sometimes that reading makes her head hurt). I am hopefully going to make a batch of homemade yogurt next week as well. We'll see. We have to recover first. :)

How are your goals for the year going? Better than mine?

kids say the darnedest things

2012-01-17T20:55:00.000-05:00

This is one of those posts where I hesitate to share due to the subject matter, but on the other hand it's just too darn funny to keep it to myself. So...read at your own risk, I guess.

The girls got a dollhouse for Christmas. Currently it's set up downstairs. Tuesday mornings find us getting ready for our homeschool co-op, and Natalie was hanging out near the dollhouse as she waited for Sarah to finish brushing her hair and putting on her shoes.

As she was waiting for her sister, Natalie had a bit of a gas attack. Now you should know that we don't use the "F" word in our house (no, not THAT "F" word--although we don't use that either of course--the crude "F" word that some people use to describe gas). We don't like it (or maybe I just don't like it--whatever). So Sarah learned quickly not to say it (a playmate had ever so kindly taught her the word), and Natalie's never heard it.

All this to say, Natalie didn't really have a label for the noise she just emitted. So she giggled and declared, "My bottom just fired on the house!"

(I'm probably going to have to burn this blog post when she's a little bit older. It's one of those stories that is terribly embarrassing later on. However, for now just enjoy the chuckle.)

it can be hard to s-p-e-l-l

2012-01-11T16:38:00.000-05:00

Sarah did her first spelling bee today. The homeschool group we belong to did two bees, one for children in kindergarten through third grade and one for children in fourth through eighth. Let me just say, some of those older kids were dynamite spellers! The second bee ran really long because the participants just weren't missing any words. They spelled words I hadn't even heard of (and I love words!).

I taught Sarah to read when she was in preschool, because she was begging to learn (I hadn't been planning on teaching her that young, really). She took off and is a phenomenal reader. I gave her an online assessment partway through kindergarten, and she was reading on about a fourth grade level. I am still, halfway into first grade, amazed by some of the words she can read.

However, reading does not necessarily translate to spelling. We've started to focus more on grammar and spelling this school year, but she is still new at it and it doesn't seem to be as instinctive for Sarah as reading is. So I really didn't have any thoughts of putting her in a spelling bee this year.

But she knew about the bee. Nelson had been recruited to work the sound system, so Sarah knew that this event called a spelling bee was taking place. She wanted to do it. So I let her. But I'll be honest; I was nervous. I wasn't worried about her performance; I know her well enough to know she was never going to win and I honestly didn't care. No, I was worried about what her reaction would be when she missed a word. Sarah is a perfectionist. If we are doing a page of twenty math problems and she misses one, she wants another page of twenty problems so she can get a perfect score. I was afraid she would miss a word and just crumble.

Thankfully, it went better than I feared. She did miss a word during her first round in the bee, and she was bummed when she sat down, but she was not inconsolable. She listened to the rest of the bee, and she clapped quite enthusiastically for the winner. She did get restless during the older kids' bee (because it was LONG), but overall I was very proud of her and I told her so.

P.S. Nelson did videotape the bee if you want to see. She's not in it very long at all, but let me know if you want him to send you the video.

P.P.S. When considering titles for this post, I thought about including a deliberately misspelled word. I wasn't sure how many would get the joke though.

verbing words is fun

2012-01-04T11:21:00.000-05:00

Have you ever noticed how children tend to use words however they wish? (Actually some adults do this too, I think.) One of the gifts Natalie got for Christmas is lip balm. She LOVES this. When she first opened it, she was so excited about it that she sat in the floor with it and didn't open another present for about twenty minutes--she was too enamored with the lip balm!

Natalie can identify most of her body parts--including her lips. She knows what and where her lips are. I learned this morning that apparently she refers to lip balm as "lips" as well. She has also turned "lip" into a verb (future "Calvin and Hobbs" fan, maybe? Or May Swenson fan, but no one's going to get that reference Google "Ornamental Sketch with Verbs"). When asking for her lip balm this morning, her exact words, "Can I have lips so I can lip myself?"

happy 2012

2012-01-02T17:00:00.000-05:00

First of all, happy New Year to all! I hope that 2012 brings hope and blessings to you.

A new year always brings talk of New Year's resolutions. Some people love making resolutions. Others adamantly refuse to make any. Most acknowledge that keeping them is rare.

I think there are several problems with the traditional idea of New Year's resolutions. First, most of them are too vague. If one resolves to lose weight, exercise more, or save money, intentions are good, but what does that actually mean? How much is "more"? How do you know when you've met the goal? What is even the plan for meeting it?

Another problem is being too ambitious. In the euphoric fog of new year hopes and dreams, we think we can overhaul our entire life. We will never touch sweets again, exercise every single day, organize our whole house, etc. However, by about Jan. 15, it's cold, it's dreary, and it's getting dark way too early. Motivation is hard to come by. Suddenly chocolate sounds really good, and burrowing under a blanket is more desirable than working out.

However, I think the turning of the calendar does tend to make one introspective, and who doesn't want a fresh start every now and then? I think making goals for the new year, breaking them down into manageable (and measurable!) chunks, and planning specific ways to meet them is very beneficial. Obviously this doesn't have to be done Jan. 1; if you suddenly get inspired on May 27 to make a goal and break it down and start working toward it, by all means go ahead. However, I happened to have made my goal list the week after Christmas. I'm posting here in hopes of clarifying my thoughts a little more and giving myself a little extra accountability.

I first thought about different areas of my life and the different roles I play. I define myself as a Christian, wife, mother, homemaker, and homeschooler. Most of my goals fit into one of these areas. Others were purely personal or financial, but even those at least partly fit into one of those categories.

After coming up with a goal (or several) for each area, I broke it down into steps needed to achieve it. I don't expect to do everything all at once. These are goals for an entire year, so they don't all need to be done tomorrow! (That certainly would be nice though.) Some really are too personal to post here, but others I don't mind sharing.

I started using You Version in December; they had an Advent Bible reading plan. They offer several other reading plans as well. Some are rather short, but others have a bit more length to them. Most are topical rather than expository in nature. Anyway, I set a goal to complete at least three of their reading plans this year. I will be doing other studies with our church, but I think this will be a good supplement.

One goal that fits with both homemaking and finances is household organization. When we moved into this house, I had a lovely vision in my head for how the house would look. I won't go into the details as to why that never came to be; suffice it to say that it didn't. However, I plan to change that this year! We are going to work for fifteen minutes a day (very doable) on going through items we own. Whatever we don't use and/or love will either be donated or sold (stuff that can be sold is the financial part of the equation). We're going to start in the play room, then move on to other rooms of the house. The last thing to be tackled will be the storage closet downstairs. Once we are left with only beloved and useful items, it will be easy to keep them neat and tidy.

Another financial goal is to write at least three articles per week for Textbroker. I am also going to read an e-book I found on AP style. When finished, I will take Textbroker's proofreading test; this opens up more job opportunities.

I have a list of books I want to read and projects I want to try. The books fall into various categories (some are spiritual, some are financial, some are homemaking), but I will post summaries and reviews after each one. I've already started the first one, an e-book on blogging. I will also post about the various projects as they occur.

I will also continue to tackle the grocery budget and the menu planning. We did much better in December, and I am excited about our progress.

I won't bore you by going on (trust me, I would bore you if I gave you my whole list. I have a detailed outline and everything. I'm a wee bit anal). Hopefully this gives you the idea. Since I plan to continue updating as the year goes on, you'll get to hear more anyway! :)

Again, happy New Year!

This post is linked to Money Saving Mom.

a glimpse into our school life

2011-12-28T20:12:00.001-05:00

I have a friend who does a fabulous job of posting all these pictures of what she does with her kids in homeschool each month. She always has a post full of projects and field trips and summaries of what they've been up to. I've thought about doing a post like that, but you can probably tell that I haven't. Heck, I never even posted the summary of our kindergarten year that I meant to back in August (oops. We had a good kindergarten year, by the way, and first grade is going well too).

Still, I can start now, right? No time like the present. I don't promise to be as organized and with it as Merry is. But hopefully I'll get a few things here and there posted that will give you an idea of what's going on around here. :)

These pictures are from November. I drew an outline of Sarah's body, and she cut out pictures of internal organs to glue in the appropriate places. Then she drew an outline of Natalie's body and just drew a face on it for fun. :)

By the way, if you noticed the art kit in the photos from Christmas day, Sarah is super excited about using those supplies with a Thomas Kincaid drawing curriculum that I bought. :)

Christmas Day

2011-12-28T13:01:00.001-05:00

The last of the holiday pictures...maybe eventually I'll figure out where the computer stashed my school pictures! :-p

Christmas Eve

2011-12-27T19:57:00.001-05:00

picture this...

2011-12-27T19:46:00.002-05:00

I had some pictures from school and such I was going to post here, but the computer seems to have eaten them. So until then, here's some Christmas photos. Enjoy! These are from Friday, December 23, at my grandmother's house. I'm going to post Christmas Eve pictures in a separate post. :)

nothing to say...

2011-12-26T21:51:00.002-05:00

I've not updated in so long that it feels like I should have something monumental to say in order to break the silence. I don't, really. I just figured the only way to start blogging again is just to start. End the writer's block by just writing something.

We've had a good Advent season and a lovely Christmas. Some highlights were doing an Advent devotional and singing sacred Christmas songs with the girls, attending a Hanukkah workshop, having Nelson's parents visit (that's still going on), a family dinner with my parents, aunt and uncle, and grandmother on Christmas Eve eve, the Christmas Eve service at church, and Christmas Eve dinner with my parents.

We watched the Charlie Brown Christmas special more than once, and Sarah fell in love with "Hark the Herald Angels Sing." We used my hymnal to sing songs together during our school devotional time, and one night she pulled it out on her own to sing songs. She went with the children during our Christmas Eve service but later regretted it when she heard we had sung her favorite one.

I do have pictures to post later; right now it's a bit late in the evening and I need to clean the kitchen. I do plan to update more regularly from now on though. Hopefully tomorrow I will be able to post a few pictures of our holiday fun, plus a few other photos that have been hanging out on the camera forever.

I signed up for a free "blogging class" that I found, so hopefully I'll be able to improve things around here and at my other blog. We''ll see.

Until next, I hope everyone had a merry Christmas. Now that we are in the twelve days between Christmas and Epiphany, I wish you ladies dancing and lords a-leaping and all that jazz. ;) I also wish you a happy New Year! I'm working on my goals for 2012 and breaking them down into weekly tasks, so I'll be posting more about that later.

Natalie says

2011-11-07T21:19:00.000-05:00

Posts using this title used to chronicle Natalie's growing vocabulary. Making a list of words would be ridiculous at this point. Go get a dictionary; those are the words she can say. ;) Still, it makes a good title for this post, which is just about the funny things she's said today.

It started when she asked to use the bathroom earlier today. As she sat on the potty, she proudly proclaimed, "I got the pee out of my bottom!"

Later, we were watching an episode of Good Eats. Alton was cooking with lobster. At first, the lobsters kind of freaked her out. Strange, since she and Sarah love to visit the lobster tank at the grocery store. Later on, however, she announced, "I like lobsters! Lobsters are good eats!" Maybe one day she'll actually get to taste lobster and find out if that's actually true. :)

more pictures (halloween)

2011-11-03T13:45:00.001-04:00

In addition to trick-or-treating on the night of Halloween itself, Sarah and Natalie got to don their costumes and attend a "fall festival" at a local church on Wednesday, October 26. Most of these pictures are from that rather than Halloween itself. The costumes are the same though, so it all works out. :)

To avoid any possible confusion, Natalie is Snow White, and Sarah is Tinkerbell. And look--Natalie finally figured out how to smile for the camera! Also, check out Sarah's missing teeth.

Bonus pictures: my co-teacher at our homeschool co-op gifted us with a Winnie the Pooh costume the day after Halloween. Natalie is in love with it. She won't get dressed today; she just wants to wear Pooh. It's too big for her, but that doesn't keep her from being enamored with it.

Happy belated Halloween!

a couple of pictures

2011-10-25T21:41:00.002-04:00

On Saturday, we ate at Olive Garden with my parents and grandmother then followed up with a visit to the mall. It was a lovely day; Olive Garden is a very rare treat for us. Natalie chattered happily with our server (she even told him he was a "good boy" for bringing her spaghetti). Olive Garden's pumpkin cheesecake is heaven on a plate; I have GOT to learn how to make that. Wow. Sarah loved bungee jumping at the mall.

My dad also visited a photo booth with the girls. It was the kind that "sketches" your picture. This will let some of you who have been asking for pictures see the gap in Sarah's mouth where she has lost two teeth. Enjoy.

P.S. I'm really irritated that spell check is griping about the word "Sarah's". What the heck is up with that?

culinary success

2011-10-20T11:50:00.003-04:00

I have a waffle recipe that I love. It started out as a recipe from my Better Homes and Gardens cookbook, but I tweaked it and made it even more amazing. :) I have a pumpkin waffle recipe that is also very good. However, I don't make it nearly as often. For one thing, I don't always have pumpkin on hand. The main reason, however, is that the first recipe is an overnight yeast recipe. I mix up the batter the night before and cook the waffles in the morning. The pumpkin waffle recipe is a normal, quick bread-type batter. Frankly, I am not a morning person. I do not have any desire first thing in the morning to be mixing waffle batter. So we usually only have the pumpkin waffles when I am doing breakfast-for-supper.

In an email conversation with my sister-in-law, I got the idea for combing the two recipes. But then a wonderful friend gifted me with a bagful of sweet potatoes. I remembered that Alton Brown (my Food Network hero) did a sweet potato waffle recipe. It too was a quick bread type recipe, but I decided to do my experiment in recipe combining.

It worked! We had sweet potato waffles this morning, and they were GOOD. I am so pleased.

Alton Brown peels and steams his sweet potatoes to get the mash he needs. I simply baked them at 425 until they were soft and the skin came off SO easily; I just pulled and off it came. I really think this is way easier than Brown's method. Plus I love when sweet potatoes bake long enough to caramelize. I cooked up a bunch at once and stowed the orange mash in the fridge; I have plenty left for other recipes.

So here is my sweet potato waffle recipe. I hope you enjoy!

2 1/4 cups white whole wheat flour
2 tbsp. brown sugar (I may have used a little more; I didn't measure very well)
1 package dry yeast (or 2 1/4 tsp)
A heavy shake of cinnamon (yeah, I'm terrible at measuring; sorry)
A tiny sprinkle of clove and ground ginger
A slightly heavier shake of allspice (more than the clove and ginger, less than the cinnamon)
I meant to add freshly grated nutmeg, but I forgot. I will do it next time.
1/2 tsp. salt
1 3/4 cup buttermilk (this adds such a depth of flavor; it is fabulous)
2 eggs
1 cup mashed sweet potato

Combine your dry ingredients in one bowl. Combine the wet ingredients in a separate bowl, then mix the two thoroughly. I did it by hand, but I really recommend an electric mixer. Cover and refrigerate batter overnight. In the morning, remove from the fridge and give it a stir. Cook according to your waffle iron's directions. I got about 10 waffles; your mileage may vary.

This post is linked to The Nourishing Gourmet and The Grocery Cart Challenge.

a messy dog

2011-10-16T11:45:00.001-04:00

We were browsing a bookstore last night when Natalie came across a calendar. This particular calendar was full of dog photos. The cover showed a picture of a boxer.

In case you need a reminder, this is what a boxer looks like:

Upon seeing the boxer, Natalie laughingly proclaimed, "That doggie's been eating chocolate!"

I suppose it was a logical mistake. After all, this is what Natalie looks like after eating chocolate:

I see the resemblance, don't you? :)

the results are in...

2011-10-01T13:46:00.002-04:00

I confessed that over the last several months I had not been putting a whole lot of effort into the whole grocery shopping thing. I wasn't really planning or thinking or anything. I totaled up our spending in August and vowed to attempt to start improving in September.

My "grocery budget" is pretty much everything. It includes diapers, toiletries, food, any eating out, etc. I admit that Amazon gift cards that I accumulate from both Swagbucks and surveys are helpful to my grocery budget; in September I was able to get 702 Pamper baby wipes for free from Amazon and two bottles of Natalie's Burt's Bees baby soap for only $2.82 out of pocket. Mostly, though, the improvement from August to September happened just because I started thinking and trying again.

I didn't use any "guerrilla" shopping techniques during September. I stuck mostly with Food City and Wal-Mart rather than stalking sales and matching coupons at various places around town. I may try to start adding those more advanced systems to my repertoire in the next few months. I can't promise that I will ever drop our budget to the point of "internet fame" like my frugal-living blogger heroes. I just want to make the best use possible of the resources we have available.

Anyway, our total spending for everything food-and-grocery-related in August was $566.83. This averages to about $142 per week for our family of four. You can tell I wasn't making too much of an effort this month! :-p

September's total spending was $432.21, an average of approximately $108 per week. I dropped the total grocery bill $134.62 from August to September. Since all I really did was return to thinking and planning, I don't think that's too bad of a start. In October, I intend to use My Grocery Deals to start utilizing the sales at various stores. I will use what coupons I can/have. Eventually I'm going to start figuring how serious frugalistas do the whole CVS game. I'm not there yet. My eventual goal is to lower our spending to $60-80 per week. I would like to go lower, but I'm not sure that I can pull that off. We'll see how meeting the first goal goes. Baby steps, right? ;)

If you want to share your favorite tips for shaving money off of your grocery bills, I'm all ears!

chestnuts roasting on an open fire...

2011-09-28T10:54:00.001-04:00

Well, maybe not. Sarah received a chestnut at our homeschool co-op yesterday, and she was very eager to try it. I'm not sure it lived up to its hype though. We still have part of a chestnut sitting on my kitchen counter. Sarah said its flavor was "very strong." That might mean a lot of different things, but I think the fact that the chestnut is sitting on the counter half-eaten speaks for itself.

once upon a dream

2011-09-25T21:27:00.000-04:00

For as long as I can remember, I have loved to write. My preference is fiction; even as a child I wanted to create stories. I started making up my own "episodes" for TV shows I enjoyed. (I have since learned that this is called "fan fiction", and there is a ton of it out on the Internet. If you have a favorite TV show or movie, look on Fan Fiction.net to see if they have it there. I've read many stories on that site for shows I love. Some are amazingly good. Some are abysmally horrible. Most are somewhere in between.)

But I digress. The point is I started to make up stories. At first, I used a tape recorder and "dictated" my tales. Then I moved on to completely original fiction and writing on paper. Later still (much, much later!), I switched to writing on the computer.

I was probably in about third or fourth grade when I announced to my parents that I wanted to be a writer when I grew up. God bless them, they never once told me what a completely unreasonable, outlandish dream that was. They honestly seemed to believe that I would someday "make it." I don't know that I ever told them how much I appreciated the fact that they didn't shoot me down, so here is public acknowledgement and a great big thanks.

I have by no means "made it" now. But in the last few days, two things happened. One, a random stranger emailed me about how much he liked this blog and how well-written he thought it was. He wants to advertise here. I have not decided whether to accept his offer, but I am incredibly flattered nonetheless.

The second thing is by far the cooler. On Money Saving Mom's blog, she mentioned a company called Textbroker International. I applied and sent in a writing sample. I received the highest rating possible for a first-time review. I applied for my first assignment. The client bought my article, no revisions necessary. I am now officially a "paid" writer. Don't get me wrong: I got paid very, very little for this article. But I got paid. I can't even begin to describe how excited I am about that. I can now browse other assignments at Textbroker...and continue to get paid for them. I feel like I am finally starting to fulfill the dream I had as a kid. It feels pretty good.

necessity is the mother of invention

2011-09-17T17:01:00.000-04:00

I have been starting my days most mornings with exercise. At the moment, I am using various Leslie Sansone workout videos. One day I am sure I will be ready for harder workouts, but not today. Sarah and Natalie often like to do the workout with me, Sarah especially. However, the workout I did this morning uses a prop--a "walk belt" (resistance bands attached to a belt that is worn around the waist).

Sarah really wanted to be able to do the portions of the video that utilized the belt/bands. I only have one though. She could have just done the arm motions without the bands, but that's not really Sarah. She wasn't about to give up so easily. Instead she created her own "walk belt."

She took a long red ribbon and tied it around her waist. The ribbon was long enough that even after being tied like a belt two long strings still hung loose, giving her her "bands." She still wanted handles though (my bands have handles), so she tied Natalie's flip-flops to the ends of the ribbons. Voila! Handles.

Natalie was less than pleased to have her flip-flops doubling as handles, but she acquiesced. Sarah was thrilled to have her own "walk belt." Sure, her ribbons weren't actually providing any resistance, unlike the rubber tubing of the real belt. She didn't know that, nor did she care. Heck, I don't care. It was a creative solution to her problem.

You can see the walk belt (plus the videos I used this morning) here. The bands don't provide the highest level of resistance, but they do ramp up a walk pretty well. They've also held up well over the years; I've had them for quite a long time now.

The link is an affiliate link.

snatching victory from the jaws of defeat

2011-09-12T16:22:00.000-04:00

Okay, so the title isn't totally accurate...more like snatching just-a-plain-old-defeat from the jaws of we-got-completely-stomped-on-and-crushed-defeat. Still, I'll take it.

On Cinco de Mayo, I tried unsuccessfully to make tortillas. They didn't turn out well at all, and I wrecked the kitchen. What a mess to clean up!

Last week, I was really trying hard to skip grocery shopping and just use what we had on hand. On Thursday, pickings were starting to get a bit slim, but I did have the ingredients to make black bean burritos. Well, I mostly had the ingredients. I didn't have tortillas. So I took a deep breath and tried that whole making tortillas at home thing again.

It's funny; I can make breads of all description. I can even concoct a pretty decent pie crust. I can make pizza dough. But I can NOT make tortillas. Not even a little bit.

The "dough" for the tortillas (that I was supposed to knead for five minutes) never actually became dough. I followed the directions exactly as to proportion of ingredients called for, but all I got was glop. You could stir it, but it wasn't going to knead.

So I began adding more flour. And more. And more. Finally I gave up. Sarah and Natalie stirred the batter-like goo for awhile. Natalie smeared it around the kitchen, then tasted it and declared it "good." I stashed it in the fridge so I didn't have to see it mocking me.

Apparently hanging out in the chill chest did improve the tortilla makings a bit. Sunday afternoon I pulled the stuff back out. It still wouldn't cooperate enough to roll it out into nice thin little rounds, but I did manage to get it into nice, not-so-thin amorphous blobs. I cooked them, and I made the black bean mixture. The darn things are too thick to be tortillas, so I told the girls they were tamales. They ate them and declared them good.

That's something, right? I can sort of claim a victory here? Or at least say I staved off total defeat?

I think I'm buying tortillas in the store from now on. It saves my sanity and makes my kitchen easier to clean.

happy birthday to me!

2011-09-08T16:55:00.000-04:00

Okay, so it's not my birthday yet. And what I'm posting about isn't really a birthday present. But it feels like one!

If you've ever looked at my blog roll, you'll see Stephanie O'Dea's Crockpot 365 blog. If you have never visited her site, you should. Every crockpot recipe you could want is there (including several yummy coffee-shop recipes--a great way to get a Starbucks fix at home!), and I love Stephanie's humor and writing style. (If you need a chuckle, read the posts labelled "flops.") But Stephanie also gives homemaking/organization tips at Totally Together. She's written a book by the same name. Earlier this week, she did a giveaway of this book.

I have entered who knows how many giveaways in my online years. Some of them, I really, really wanted to win...but I've never won one (that's the case for most people, right? "Many will enter, but few will win, blah, blah"). Well...until now! I won a F*R*E*E copy of Stephanie's book! I like free, and I like Stephanie, and goodness knows I need help with organization. (I told my SIL that God was hinting at me, letting me win this!). So I'm calling it a birthday present to myself, and I'm excited to get it. Once I've had a chance to read it, I'll share my thoughts and insights.

Oh, and speaking of blog recommendations, if you've never checked out my other blog, I invite you to do so. You might find an interesting article or bit of advice there (I really like the article on how eating your veggies can give you a natural tan!). Truth be known, I have a third blog, but I don't update it very often. Maybe I need to consolidate. (And yes, I realize that I didn't include the link to Blog #3. Perhaps some other time). :)

I'm going to wrap up now. We were in the waiting period of a science experiment, but the timer is beeping now, so I'm off to do more school!

a sticky situation

2011-08-31T19:23:00.000-04:00

I was going to post my menu plan on Monday (because I did actually do it), but you know what? I've already altered it. We ate leftovers Monday, and tonight we're eating something completely off-the-list. (My roast didn't defrost, so I needed a Plan B. It was actually comical--I started two other things before settling on the quiche we actually ate. I also now have a head start on tomorrow's meal, so I guess that's good).

I did go to the grocery store yesterday, and I spent $63.08. This is an improvement over the last month, so I'll take it. :)

I do have a funny story from today, although I am somewhat reticent to post it here. It's kind of embarrassing, but honestly it's too funny not to share! So red-faced and all, here goes (if you're especially sensitive, stop reading here).

Natalie got into the bathroom cabinet this morning. She got into my stash of pads. She tore open several, removed the backing to reveal the sticky strip, and stuck them to the toilet seat. Oy! They stick really well to porcelain, if you're interested.

She and Sarah are both also decorated (clothes, skin) in marker ink from art time today, but that's pretty normal. :) Hopefully my laundry skills will be able to rescue the clothing!

no more mop and bucket

2011-08-24T22:40:00.000-04:00

I have a Shark steam mop that I use to clean our floors. I got it with my Christmas money (y.es, I'm one of those weird people who enjoys getting things like household appliances for Christmas. If you get inspired to buy me a blender, let me know!). I like the convenience of the steam mop. I like the fact that I don't have to mess with mop solution (I hate the smell of cleaning chemicals anyway. Water is cheap and has no smell). I like the fact that I can wash and reuse the mop pads, as opposed to the Swiffer where you have to keep purchasing new ones. I like that it's lightweight and easy to use.

But you know what my very favorite thing about the steam mop is? Sarah loves it. She asks to be allowed to mop. Who ever heard of a kid begging to clean the floors? My floor has been mopped more frequently since acquiring this mop than ever before. I think it's been steam-mopped three times just since last night.

Today some sticky lemonade got spilled. We all clean up our own messes around here, so Sarah got towels to sop up the liquid, then immediately got the steam mop to take care of the sticky. It took about two minutes, tops. Or it would have...if Sarah hadn't asked to mop the rest of the floor while she was at it! Who am I to turn down a kid who is that excited to mop? (By the way, Natalie likes the mop too. She has a harder time maneuvering it, but she likes it.)

Maybe you should get one of these, huh? It's kid--approved! :) (Yes, it's an affiliate link, but please take this post in the spirit it's intended; I just think it's cute the girls like the mop so much. I'm not really trying to do a "hard sell." Of course, if you DO happen to need a mop right now, it wouldn't hurt my feelings if you bought it through my link!) ;)

Euro-Pro Shark S3101 Electric Steam Mop

confessions

2011-08-22T18:07:00.000-04:00

In a conversation with my SIL, I mentioned that I was menu planning today. She asked if I was going to post my menus. It's been awhile since I posted menus or grocery shopping results. It's been awhile since I've even thought about menu planning or trying to save on the grocery budget. My spending in this area shows this, unfortunately.

Truth be known, I haven't felt overly great over the past few months and I haven't done much of anything. The house, the blog, the budget, etc. have all shown the effects of this. But I am slowly getting back on track and "back in the game." So I'm going to go back to the beginning and start again. I've had successes already; my exercise program has become more consistent the last couple of weeks. I'm putting the house back in order. And I know how much I spent on food in August so far so that I can begin to work toward lowering that amount in the weeks and months to come (and no, I'm not telling the amount. It's embarrassing).

However, I'm hopeful. There's plenty of room for improvement here! :)

I haven't really assigned specific days to any of these meals; I was just trying to get down ideas of what I could make with what I have. And some of the meals listed might not get made this week at all; I was giving myself some options and some wiggle room, so there are a few extras here to choose from.

Breakfasts:
Muffins
Toast
Smoothies
Pumpkin waffles
Cereal and milk
pumpkin pie oatmeal
donuts

Suppers:
Cheesy chicken and rice (thanks, Tara!)
Barbecue chicken pasta bake (thanks again, Tara!)--this one's iffy--not sure I have all the ingredients
Pasta carbonara
lentil tacos
burgers and fries
potato soup or taco soup
beef, black bean, and Spanish rice burritos or black bean burritos
macaroni and cheese

a few Easter pics

2011-08-13T16:20:00.000-04:00

In keeping with the previous post's theme of keeping promises, I seem to recall promising awhile back to post Easter pictures (okay, it was a LONG while back!). Better late than never, right?

Please ignore me and just enjoy the girls in all of their Easter finery!

Sarah and Natalie had a great time coloring eggs with my dad.

keeping a promise

2011-08-13T16:07:00.000-04:00

I hate pictures of myself. I'm not a big fan of taking pictures either (hence the lack of pictures on this blog), but at least being behind the camera keeps me from having to be in front of one. Some people are photogenic; I don't happen to be one of them.

A few weeks ago, I got my hair cut. It was the first time in about two years I have been able to get a cut, so quite a few inches got chopped. With that much needing to go, I did a donation to Pantene's Beautiful Lengths. I've been enjoying my much shorter, easier-to-deal-with hair. Happily, I've gotten lots of compliments on the new look as well.

My long-distance relatives want to see my new look though. Nelson obligingly snapped a photo. I really don't like the picture much, but I sort of promised that I would show my mother-in-law and sister-in-law the results of my trip to the salon.

So...here it is. Terrible picture, but it will give you the idea anyway.

a fun-festing we will go...

2011-07-18T21:06:00.000-04:00

It's Fun Fest here in Kingsport, so activities abound. We visited Netherland Inn Saturday (a historic site in town). After church Sunday, we toured Allendale Mansion then visited Farm Fest. I had never been to Farm Fest before, but we had a blast! Sarah was able to play a dulcimer, wash clothes on a washboard, play in hay, string beans, core apples, and more. We will definitely make it a point to return next year.

Today we visited Fun Fest's "Kid Central." There were plenty of carnival-type games, and we also got to see a magic show. We may return later in the week for some of the other shows and activities there.

If I really get my act together, I'll try to get some pictures of our activities throughout the week and post them here. We'll see how that goes. ;)

long time, no blog

2011-07-11T19:05:00.000-04:00

I've noticed something; the longer that I go without posting, the harder it is to start back. Inertia even affects blogging, I guess. An object at rests tends to stay at rest, and a post unwritten seems to stay unwritten.

Of course, once I get in a good groove, I tend to update regularly. So here's hoping that Karen gets her groove back with this post.

Nelson's parents are visiting. Last week we went to the local Splash Pad and to Warriors' Path park to play on the Boundless Playground there (the name of the playground is Darrell's Dream. Since Nelson's dad is named Darrell, this was an appropriate place to visit!). Saturday we visited Bays Mountain. We saw wolves (Sarah's favorite), deer (including several babies), owls, bobcats, and several varieties of fish.

Today I did the mundane task of grocery shopping. At least it should have been mundane. Unfortunately, it ended up being something of an embarrassing trial. I got my groceries, got to the checkout, and handed the clerk my frequent shopper card. I even had my coupons ready to go. But then I opened my wallet and realized that my debit card wasn't in it! I had to have the cashier void out the order (thankfully she was quite gracious) and call home for Nelson to come rescue me. He came, paid for the groceries, and all's well that ends well. It was very embarrassing at the time though! (And I have since located the missing debit card).

cinco de mayo

2011-05-06T10:55:00.002-04:00

I had hoped that today I would be posting about my fabulous Mexican feast from yesterday. However, it didn't quite live up to expectation. I attempted to make homemade tortillas, and it was a pretty big fail. Sarah liked them (God bless my wonderfully non-picky child), but they made a horrific mess, frustrated the daylight out of me, and generally just weren't very good. I think buying tortillas is a perfectly reasonable option. I liked last year's Cinco de Mayo (at a restaurant, with live music) MUCH better.

On a different note, since I "told" on Natalie's bad behavior, I'll be fair and tell the good stuff too. Every day, school begins with prayer, Bible, and a book to help children learn parts of the Westminster shorter catechism. Big Truths for Little Kids: Teaching Your Children to Live for God Natalie is present during all this, and apparently a little bit of it is "sticking." She frequently tells us, "God cares me!" or "God cares you!" And last night while she was in the tub Nelson overheard, "Pray Mommy, pray Daddy, pray God, amen." So there is a silver lining--and a pretty big one at that. :)

(Again, the link is an affiliate link).

someone is two...

2011-05-04T22:36:00.000-04:00

...very, VERY two! Miss Natalie is turning into an outright mess.

Tonight she dumped water out of the bathtub. When Nelson firmly told her that water was supposed to stay in the tub, she adorably exclaimed, "I sorry!" "No, you're not," Nelson retorted. "I know!" Natalie answered cheerfully.

"For Pete's sake," Nelson muttered to himself as he cleaned the mess she had made. "Pete's sake!" Natalie echoed.

Yesterday was the real kicker, though. She had dumped Sarah's math flash cards all over the living room floor. I told her to clean them up. She said no. I told her she could clean them up, or sit in time-out. She said, "Make me."

I'll admit to being a bit taken aback (where'd she learn that one, anyway?), but that didn't keep from responding. I swatted her diapered bottom and put her in the play pen. She wailed in outrage. But after she was down to the last few sobs, I asked if she was ready to clean up the cards. "Yes," she replied.

The funny thing is, even though "Make me" is a horribly disrespectful thing to say, she sounded so unbelievably cute saying it! I didn't let her know that of course, but she did. I think my mother is right, and God makes kids cute so you don't kill them.

Easter and birthdays

2011-05-03T11:54:00.000-04:00

I promised myself I wouldn't post this first story until I had the pictures to go with it. But here I am, doing it anyway. Oops. (I do have good news for a certain SIL of mine--our church is doing photo directories, and guess who's being dragged off to do a family portrait? Guess who's not really looking forward to this? I may call in dead. But that's another post.)

Anyway, we DID take pictures of the girls in their Easter dresses. Natalie wouldn't do a picture without me in it. Since I haven't quite figured out how to photo-shop myself out of the pictures, I guess I'll show up too when I get them on here. No, that isn't why they aren't up yet...at least not consciously. :-p

We went to my parents' house for supper on Easter Sunday. As we were leaving, I tried to get Natalie to say, "Bye! Happy Easter!" With all the enthusiasm in the world, she exclaimed, "Bye, Easter!" She did this several times. Even in the car going home, as we talked with Nelson's mom, Natalie kept happily proclaiming, "Bye, Easter!"

Fast forward to this morning. It is Nelson's birthday. I told the girls to tell him happy birthday. Natalie immediately and cheerfully came out with "Happy Easter!" NOW she gets it right! On the wrong occasion!

I'll try to get the pictures on here soon. Until then, bye Easter and happy birthday and all that. :)

believing in the unseen

2011-04-14T21:48:00.000-04:00

Sarah and I have been reading C.S. Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia together as part of school. We are currently on Book 4 (I go by the original order, not the new one), The Silver Chair. It contains one of the best descriptions of faith I have ever read. Lewis just knocks it out of the park with this one. The scene is the evil witch attempting to convince the heroes that Narnia is mere make-believe that they have conjured up, not real at all. Aslan is also a figment of their imaginations. Here is Puddleglum's response:

"...I won't deny any of what you've said. But there's one more thing to be said, even so. Suppose we have only dreamed, or made up, all these things--trees and grass and sun and moon and stars and Aslan himself. Suppose we have. Then all I can say is that, in that case, the made-up things seem a good deal more important that the real ones. Suppose this black pit of a kingdom of yours is the only world. Well, it strikes me as a pretty poor one. And that's a funny thing, when you come to think of it. We're just babies making up a game, if you're right. But four babies playing a game can make a play-world which licks your real world hollow. That's why I'm going to stand by the play world. I'm on Aslan's side even if there isn't any Aslan to lead it. I'm going to live as like a Narnian as I can even if there isn't any Narnia. So, thanking you kindly for our supper, if these two gentlemen and the young lady are ready, we're leaving your court at once and setting out in the dark to spend our lives looking for Overland. Not that our lives will be very long, I should think; but that's small loss if the world's as dull a place as you say."

There are many who would claim that Christianity is a myth, a child's fairy tale. When you are facing discouragement and despair, when you are hearing the witch whispering in your ear and you are starting to believe her, when this "black pit of a kingdom" seems to be all there is, remember Puddleglum's words. It is worth it to live as a Narnian and to follow Aslan. The child's make-believe completely trumps the real world every time.

spice girl

2011-04-13T16:54:00.000-04:00

I've already posted about Natalie getting into the pantry and getting a mouthful of cloves. At Christmas, while I was attempting to make fruitcake, she poured out the entire bottle of vanilla extract. Well, today we had another venture into spice world.

I was making cinnamon toast for breakfast. In an effort to "healthy it up" a bit, I used honey instead of white sugar. I was mixing the butter, cinnamon, and honey together in a bowl so I could spread it on the slices of bread. Natalie (who had already snitched a bite of bread) got a hold of the cinnamon...and dumped most of it on said piece of bread.

Oh, what a mess. I managed to get most of it cleaned up and even got most of it scraped off of the bread. But it was still the most cinnamon-y bread you have EVER seen. There was a TON of cinnamon on that bread.

Natalie loved it. She devoured every last bite. We joked that she's a new Spice Girl. Nelson jokingly dubbed her "Bratty Spice." I think maybe Mischief Spice would work.

goals, part 1

2011-04-13T16:03:00.006-04:00

So I totaled up our grocery store expenditures from March 1 through yesterday, to see how we're doing. Frankly, there's plenty of room for growth! I am reading all of Money Saving Mom's posts about shopping at CVS to try to learn how to score toiletries for free, because I do include toiletries and diapers and such in my grocery budget. So learning to reduce my costs on those items leaves more room for food!

Some things that HAVE gone well this past month: I discovered Amazon's Subscribe and Save program. I am absolutely thrilled with the deals I got on Luvs diapers, Pampers baby wipes, and Nutiva Organic Extra Virgin Coconut Oil, 15-Ounce Tubs (Pack of 2). Angel Food Ministries continues to be a huge help to our efforts to keep our grocery bill in check. Our local farmers' market starts up in May, and my fabulous SIL has inspired me to check it out. I'm definitely excited about that. I have a rain check to score a great deal on whole wheat pasta at Kroger as soon as they restock.

Our downfall? We eat out way. Too. Much. When I am tired, when my head hurts, when I don't feel good, that ends up being an easy (but expensive!) option! My husband is far too understanding and sweet for our own good! I'm trying to come up with better back-up plans. This is going to be absolutely crucial for us.

I am also using a book I got for Christmas to develop a "migraine wellness plan." I'll post more about that as I get the kinks worked out. However, if you happen to be a fellow headache sufferer, the book is The Migraine Brain: Your Breakthrough Guide to Fewer Headaches, Better Health.

I read on another blog that the USDA or some other such group estimates that a family of four will spend $500 a month if they are following a "thrifty" plan. If I understand correctly, this is JUST the cost of food at home--I don't think it includes toiletries or eating out. I am pleased to say we spend WAY less that that.

I did have a "creative cuisinery" moment yesterday that I am quite proud of. I needed to go grocery shopping, but it just didn't happen. So I was frantically searching for something we could have for supper. I had no flour, no milk, none of my usual go-to items. But I found a recipe for "Kusherie" in my More-With-Less Cookbook (World Community Cookbook) (highly recommend it, by the way). It's an Egyptian lentils and rice dish. It turned out great (Sarah especially loved it). So there's hope that I can improve as time goes on.

For the record, we spent $279 total on groceries, diapers, toiletries, etc. from Mar. 1 through Apr. 7. That averages out to about $69.75 per week. I would actually be very pleased with that total if it weren't for the eating out that we did on top of it! So here's to making improvements next month.

P.S. In the interest of full disclosure, the links are affiliate links. If you click the link and end up purchasing the item, I will receive a small kickback. And lest you think that I'm suddenly going to start cluttering up the blog with affiliate links, never fear. I will only link to things I really and truly love, and it will be rare. This is probably the only time you will see three links in one post; I was mainly trying to get things set up and make sure it was working properly.

a recipe

2011-04-06T20:37:00.000-04:00

A couple of months ago our Angel Food order contained a bag of black-eyed peas. I had never eaten black-eyed peas, let alone cooked them. I wasn't entirely sure what I was going to do with them, but I started prowling the Internet looking for recipes.

I finally decided that I would try black-eyed pea and lentil soup. I used this recipe as a starting point, but if you know me you know I didn't follow that recipe exactly! I used the crockpot to cook my soup in, I used homemade chicken stock instead of water and bouillon, and I subbed onion powder for the onion. I didn't have any diced tomatoes, so I used a jar of my grandmother's home canned tomatoes. And we topped our soup with cheese.

The soup wasn't too bad, but if I make it again I will definitely make some changes. It needs more flavor. I think I'd add more cumin, some fresh garlic, and...bacon. We really thought bacon would help it. I'm not sure what it says about us that we take a perfectly healthy recipe of legume soup and want to add bacon--probably nothing good.

I'm considering hoppin' john or Texas caviar to use up the rest of the black-eyed peas. If you don't know what those are, Google it. Or, if you're smart do a Swagbucks search.

I know I haven't posted shopping reports and menus much lately. I'm going to total up what I've spent the last couple of months and see how I did. That way I can evaluate how I'm doing, what's working, and what needs to change. I'm quite certain there will be plenty of things that need to change! I know I haven't done as well as I would have liked. But seeing where I am will help me make a plan to where I want to be.

a little link luv

2011-03-23T12:11:00.001-04:00

Check out this article by my dad (it may be the first in a series; I'm not sure). Anyway, it's about Bible study, so check it out! http://tinyurl.com/5uvo4dh

pumpkin chronicles?

2011-03-23T11:31:00.000-04:00

Yesterday was Day of the Pumpkin at the Butterworth house! It was kind of like Thanksgiving in March!

It started with pumpkin pie oatmeal for breakfast. Sarah woke up with a slight sore throat, and this oatmeal is not only jam-packed with nutrition, but I figured the hot cereal would soothe as well. (I add a little bit of maple syrup to the recipe; the girls and I love it!)

But the pumpkin oatmeal only uses part of a can of pumpkin puree. So I thought an afternoon treat was in order--pumpkin spice lattes! Oh, the girls went gaga over this. I drank most of it, but both of them loved what I let them drink (I used vanilla almond milk so that Natalie could partake. Boy, was she thrilled with her special drink!).

But I still had leftover pumpkin! And I'll be honest--I really didn't want to cook supper last night. Ever have one of those nights where you just don't want to? I didn't have a good excuse--just wasn't in the mood. But we have to eat, and since I hadn't had the foresight to defrost something it was looking like boxed mac and cheese was going to have to do it. :-p (Thankfully I got a SLAMMING deal on Annie's at Kroger last week!)

But I got to thinking. Sometimes I can convince Nelson to make omelets when we do breakfast-for-supper. And since I had pumpkin puree, I could make pumpkin waffles! Yummy!

So that was how one can of pumpkin fed us three times yesterday. We may all turn orange. Won't we look like dedicated UT fans then? ;)

the logic of children

2011-03-13T16:15:00.000-04:00

I have a pen that I absolutely love, a silver Cross pen. It is beautiful and feminine, and I really enjoying writing with it. I use it to make notes, plan school lessons, jot recipes, and so forth, but its most common function comes as I write in my daily planner. I am one of those people who is completely lost without a detailed plan for my day.

Natalie got a hold of my beloved pen last week. Naturally, she lost it. Every time I asked where my pen was, she would say, "Where it go?" and "Find it!" She found part of it (yes, she took it apart). But she could not remember where she had put the other half. I had seen her with near the recliner in the living room, so I dug around in it and moved it to look underneath. No luck. I looked under the couch. Nope. After scouring the whole living room, I still had no clue where my pen was.

I spent much of the week planning my days with a pen of Sarah's. She was less than thrilled about this turn of events, and I couldn't claim to be crazy about it either. I didn't want to be using her pen anymore than she wanted to lend it to me; I wanted my pen back. But Natalie had no clue where she had stashed it.

I finally found the pen a couple of days ago--in a location so logical, it should have been the one of the first places I looked! My planner has a back pocket for stashing receipts or notes or whatever. I was digging out an old receipt that I'd stowed there and lo and behold, there was my pen. Why on earth hadn't it occurred to me that Natalie would put the darn thing back with my planner?

I am reminded of a similar incident from when Sarah was about Natalie's age. We lived in an apartment, and Sarah liked to help me taking clothing out of the dryer. This particular dryer had the lint filter in the door, not up on top. So when the dryer door was opened, the filter was well within Sarah's reach.

Well, one day she took off with the lint filter and hid it. We looked and looked, but could not find it anywhere. Nelson finally went to a parts store and purchased a new filter; I had to be able to use the dryer. Months later, as I was cleaning the not-so-new-anymore lint filter, I noticed something down in the now empty compartment. I pulled it out and yep, you guessed it, it was the original lint filter. It was mangled beyond words from being shoved down so far into the door, but it had been pretty much where it should have been all along.

So the moral of the story is that if your child loses something, you'll probably find it "hiding in plain sight" in a perfectly reasonable, logical place.

the innocence of children

2011-03-12T21:35:00.000-05:00

I have already mentioned several times how much we love The Dick Van Dyke Show. Natalie even will ask, "Watch Dyke?" The other day we watched an episode from the series titled "That's My Boy??" For those unfamiliar with the show, this is one of its most well-known and well-remembered episodes. It contains a scene which made the list of "100 Most Memorable TV Moments" put together by TV Land and TV Guide several years ago.

The story is told as a flashback. Rob (Van Dyke's character) remembers the birth of his son Ritchie and the early days after bringing him home from the hospital. Through a series of events, Rob becomes convinced that there has been a mix-up and he and his wife have brought home the wrong baby. He believes that they have the baby of the Peters family, and that the Peters likewise have baby boy Petrie.

Rob finally talks with Mr. Peters on the phone and arranges for him to come by the house. Mr. and Mrs. Peters arrive at the Petrie house...and it turns out that they are an African-American couple. The studio audience laughed so long at this big reveal that the film crew had to stop the cameras for a few minutes to let the commotion die down. And even though this was the 1960s, it was not the black couple who were looking foolish in the scene; Rob was the one who appeared to be the dolt. In fact, Mr. Peters is clearly depicted as the one with the upper hand: when Rob stammers, "Why didn't you tell me on the phone?" Mr. Peters retorts, "And miss the expression on your face?"

And yes, there is a point to all this. As I started with, we viewed this episode the other day. Sarah thoroughly enjoyed the show...but she didn't get the punchline. At all. And the more I thought about it, the more completely cool I think this is.

Sarah has noticed differences in skin color on occasion; once or twice she has even commented or asked questions about it. But I realized after watching this episode with her that she had attached absolutely no significance whatsoever to it. At the episode's end, she laughingly said, "Rob got the wrong baby!" I told her that no, he just thought he did. Her expression changed to one of frowning confusion. It really hadn't occurred to her that the arrival of an African-American couple meant that a mix-up of the babies was nigh near impossible.

How wonderfully color-blind my Sarah is. I pray she always stays that way.

menu plan...Tuesday?

2011-03-08T21:14:00.000-05:00

So I kind of skipped Menu Plan Monday. The funny thing is, I DID plan my menus...I did it Sunday evening. But I never got it posted yesterday...the day just kind of got away from me. But anyway, here is part of what we're going to be eating this week. I actually planned more meals than I will need; I like to have options.

Oh, and Nelson spent $15.43 at Ingles Sunday night. He got necessary things like tortillas and oxygen bleach...and chips. Okay, so THOSE weren't necessary. We probably needed milk more. Oops.

Breakfast:
Cold cereal and milk (had this Monday)
Cinnamon raisin toast (this was today's meal, using leftover bread from last night)
Baked oatmeal (this often gets us two meals)
Muffins
Waffles
Doughnuts (these are a gift from my parents most weeks and make for a fun Saturday breakfast. Back-up plan is leftover waffles).

Lunch:
Leftovers or tortilla wraps/quesadillas

Supper:
Taco soup and cinnamon raisin bread
Omelets and blueberry-lemon muffins
Hamburgers, potatoes, and applesauce
Black bean burritos, veggies
Dinner with my parents
Potato soup, bread
Baked pasta, veggies, bread

A quick note about taco soup: this is becoming a family favorite! I had read about it on the Internet for ages, but I couldn't find a version of it that I could eat. A friend of mine finally gave me her recipe, and we have been enjoying it since. Sarah raves about it when we eat it.

The cinnamon raisin bread is another winner. It's a new recipe, but it is sooooo good. And it makes wonderful toast in the mornings. :)

music baby

2011-03-06T17:42:00.001-05:00

In January, Sarah and Natalie started a weekly Kindermusik class. They are both having a GREAT time. For Sarah, returning to Kindermusik is like reuniting with an old friend. For Natalie, however, it's her first Kindermusik experience, and it's been delightful to watch. She loves the instruments and the games and especially the songs!

Part of the take-home materials are CDs of the songs from class. Both girls love to listen to the CDs in the car. Now that we've been in the class for a few weeks, Natalie is becoming more familiar with the music and is starting to sing along...which is both precious and hilarious.

One of the songs on the CD is "Skinnamarink." The lyrics are:

Skinnamarink-a-dinky-dink.
Skinnamarink-a-doo I love you
Skinnamarink-a-dinky-dink.
Skinnamarink-a-doo I love you
I love you in the morning and in the afternoon
I love you in the evening and underneath the moon
Skinnamarink-a-dinky-dink.
Skinnamarink-a-doo I love you.

Or as Natalie sings it, "Dink, dink, wuv you!"

Then there's the song "Toodala." This was one of Natalie's initial favorites. It's a nonsense song, with simple lyrics:

Mighty pretty motion, toodala
Toodala, toodala.
Mighty pretty motion, toodala
Toodala-la lady.

From the very first time that she heard the song, Natalie sang along, "Too-de-wa." In fact, even as I type this, she is singing “Too-de-wa” into a toy headset.

The last song that I really enjoy listening to her attempts at singing is the good-bye number at the end of class. Those lyrics are:

Sing your way through the week

Sing and sway cheek to cheek

Sing and play, every day

Sing, sing, sing

Good-bye to sisters,

Good-bye to brothers,

Good-bye to grown-ups,

Sing good-bye.

Of course, Natalie's version is simply “Sing, sing, bye.”

I would love to get a recording of her versions of the music sometime, but I don't know if I'll be able to do that. She tends to not perform on command. ;) But hopefully "recording" it here will at least preserve the memory. She's awfully cute to hear!

it's not easy being pink...

2011-03-05T22:19:00.000-05:00

Back in January, Sarah came down with pink eye in both eyes. We tried to be extra careful as we treated her so that no one else would get it We were successful, and once Sarah was better, we were done with pink eye.

In the last couple of weeks, we've all come down with colds. It's been a humdinger of a cold, and no one is recovering very quickly. I've been especially worried about Natalie. Colds have a tendency to turn into ear infections for her. For awhile last year, she was getting an ear infection every 2-3 months. It has been about 9 months since her last one, so we had definitely broken the pattern. Still, the cold was making me edgy...especially when she started screaming one night.

I took her to the doctor (our pediatrician is now in a new office, which is very nice--and closer to our house!). Natalie didn't have an ear infection, but she did have an infection in her throat...and pink eye.

Putting eye drops into Sarah's eyes when she had pink eye wasn't a picnic, but it was doable. Putting eye drops into Natalie's eye, however, has been darn near impossible. It is a battle each and every time, and it takes both me and Nelson to get the eye drops in. I will be glad when it is over, and I hope we can keep it from spreading to anyone else again.

a conversation transcribed

2011-02-28T11:30:00.000-05:00

For breakfast this morning, Natalie ate a piece of cinnamon swirl raisin bread with butter. She ate the butter off first, which led to the following conversation.

Natalie: More butter.
Me: Where's the butter you had?
Natalie (looking around and lifting her hands in a shrug): Butter...where?
Me: Yes, where did it go?
Natalie (a repeat, almost exactly, of her above response)
Me: Where is the butter?
Natalie: Butter go...in car!
Me (laughing): The butter went in the car?
Natalie: Yes.
Me: The butter isn't supposed to go in the car. It's supposed to go in your tummy!
Natalie: Oh. Cute!
Me (still laughing): Eat your bread.
Natalie: Eat supper!

Sooo...if you happen to see any butter driving around in a car today, please send it back to us. Apparently it's Natalie's escaped butter from breakfast (or supper, according to her!)

a picture

2011-02-27T16:12:00.000-05:00

Yesterday at the mall my dad took Sarah and Natalie into one of those photo booths that creates a sketch. Here are the results. :)

exciting news!

2011-02-27T13:50:00.001-05:00

I am thrilled beyond words to be typing up this blog post. I held off writing until I felt sure, but it's been long enough that I feel confident. :)

Sarah was diagnosed with acid reflux when she was three months old. She has been on daily medication ever since. She started on Zantac, and as she got older we kept having to increase the dose. The doctor assured us that most babies outgrew reflux before they reached toddlerhood, but Sarah was still on Zantac when she was four. In fact, by that time we had pretty much maxed out the dosage possible. And still her reflux wasn't really under control. So the doctor switched her to Prevacid.

Unfortunately, the switch to Prevacid came during one of the tightest financial periods we have ever had. The prescription Prevacid Solu-tabs cost more than the Zantac syrup, and Sarah had to have it. My SIL kept encouraging me to take Sarah to a chiropractor, but we couldn't afford to do so. There were times when I had to fill only seven or ten days' worth of the prescription at a time; thankfully the pharmacy was always very accommodating.

Then last January, Prevacid went over the counter. Now instead of $116 for a 30-day prescription, I could pay $25 for a 42-day supply! They were of course capsules instead of Solu-tabs, but I taught Sarah how to swallow them and we were good to go. Sometimes we could even find coupons. Then last month we found that Amazon had 42-day supplies for only $16--even better!

But now we have the BEST news of all! After six years of praying and hoping and struggling to come up with the needed medicine--Sarah finally doesn't need it anymore! She has been without Prevacid for over TWO WEEKS now. No stmachaches, no churning, no reflux.

After six years of daily medicines, six years of worrying about the effects of this over the course of a lifetime, six years of scrambling to pay for it, to say that we are thrilled by this turn of events is an understatement. We are rejoicing and praising God. We are truly grateful for Sarah's healing.

menu plans and mosaics

2011-02-23T20:31:00.001-05:00

Well, remember when I said that having a migraine made me feel more like plucking out my eyeballs than cooking? Well, it doesn't make me feel like planning to cook either. And that boxed mac and cheese came in very handy Monday evening.

So Menu Plan Monday didn't happen, and I'm just winging it this week. Thankfully, we have enough on hand that winging it is easy. :) Last night we had pork, green beans, and cinnamon raisin bread. Tonight it's a chicken and rice dish.

In other news, Sarah has this "mosaic" art set. She loves creating "masterpieces" with it. The box promises that it is a "mess-free" activity.

The box lies. Either the creator of this activity never met a child, or I simply have a very unique and talented daughter. There are little adhesive mosaic pieces all over the house--on the furniture, the floor, our clothes, Natalie's hair, etc.

The pictures do look pretty when she's finished though. :)

grocery shopping report

2011-02-20T17:09:00.000-05:00

Okay, back to the attempts to lower our food bill by remaining accountable. One of my goals for 2011 is really attacking the grocery budget and getting it as low as I can. I don't have any illusions of getting to $40 per week like some of the Internet legends; I have too many food sensitivities, and I have a kid in diapers! I am going to start with a goal of $80 per week and see if I can eventually get it down to $60 per week. We'll see how it goes. Food coupons don't tend to be very useful to me, but I'm going to try to use more toiletry coupons and try to score freebies like Money Saving Mom does. :)

So here is what we bought this week. I now have a fully stocked freezer and pantry and will attempt to post a menu plan on Monday for how we intend to use all this bounty.

I placed an order with Angel Food Ministries and paid $35.48 for it. We received in our "Bread of Life" box yesterday:

2 lbs. hamburger steaks
2 lbs. chicken breast filets (boneless, skinless)
1 macaroni and beef frozen entree
1 lb. ground beef
1 boneless pork chops
1 lb. smoked sausage
1 lb. frozen corn
1 lb. frozen green beans
1 lb. frozen sugar snap peas and carrots
14 oz. can diced tomatoes
1 lb. kidney beans
1 packet chili seasoning mix
8 oz. box Jiffy biscuit mix
10 envelopes instant oatmeal
32 oz. 2% milk
1 dozen eggs
8 oz. box Jiffy chocolate chip cookie mix

I also did a quick Food City run earlier in the week. I spent $34.94 and purchased:

2 lb. sharp cheddar cheese
1/2 gallon of Silk Pure Almond milk
2 packages of tortillas
1 lb. black beans
2 Valu Time boxes macaroni and cheese
1 box of Valu Time Honey Nut Oat cereal
4 packets Valu Time drink mix (cherry, orange, grape, and strawberry)
1 lb. Land o Frost honey ham sandwich meat
1 4 oz. tube Crest toothpaste (used coupon)
2.55 lbs. bananas
5 lbs. red potatoes

I spent a total of $70.42 between Angel Food and the grocery store. With what I got and what I already had on hand, I think I can feed us very well for at least a couple of weeks. I'm going to see how far I can stretch our supplies, although we may need personal products next week. :)

Oh, and just to reassure my foodie friends: I do normally make homemade macaroni and cheese. But I find it helpful to have a couple of convenience foods on hand for nights when I have a killer migraine and feel more like pulling my eyeballs out than cooking. And there are not many convenience foods I can eat. But I CAN eat the $0.25 boxes of store brand mac and cheese. So they make a good emergency back-up meal. As for the faux Cheerios, Natalie likes to snack on them. Sarah requested the Kool-Aid knock-offs as a special treat. Since they were on sale for $0.12 apiece, I obliged her. :)

This post is linked to Money Saving Mom.

p.s.

2011-02-19T21:22:00.000-05:00

I thought that since we were home (leaving my parents with a smelly guest room and Natalie's perfume-y clothes) and since Natalie had a good scrub in the tub last night, I was done with headache-inducing odor. But no. We are having a wee bit of spring-like weather, and as I got Natalie ready to go outside, I caught the overpowering whiff of Oscar de la Renta again. I couldn't figure out where it was coming from. She was wearing clean clothes! She'd had a bath!

Then I realized...it was coming from her shoes!

Sheesh.

curiosity killed the cat...

2011-02-19T14:33:00.001-05:00

Or in this case, the perfume bottle. And my head. And I think my dad's head. And possibly an outfit and maybe even some carpet.

Oh, boy. :-p

Fridays usually find us at my parents' house. We all look forward to the weekly visit. Sarah and Natalie especially enjoy playing with the children my mother cares for. Since my parents added a new bedroom and bathroom to the house, the kids often play in the old bedroom, which is basically a guest room now.

My mom still keeps some things in that old bedroom though--including her perfume collection. She has this pretty stand with glass shelves that holds all of her bottles of fragrance. It sits next to a dresser in a part of the room that the kids don't use. The little girl who is Natalie's age showed fascination with the perfumes, but Mom had taught her that it was off-limits, so it wasn't really an issue.

Natalie isn't there five days a week like Emma is though, and she hadn't quite gotten that whole "off-limits" memo yet.

Natalie wondered over to my dad early yesterday afternoon proclaiming, "Wet!" Dad noticed that the front of her shirt and pants were indeed very wet. He figured she had leaked through her diaper. I picked her up to go change her and quickly realized that she was sporting a smell that was decidedly NOT diaper-ish.

Upon examination of the bedroom, several scattered bottles of perfume were discovered. A bottle of Oscar de la Renta was emptied completely. There was a large, fragrant spot on the carpet. Natalie and the room both reeked. Perfume is great in small quantities, but there was nothing small about this.

My head hurt from the fumes, and my mother is still working on trying to get the smell out of Natalie's clothes. I don't know HOW she'll get the room de-odorized.

This is not usually what one means when one tells of a "stinky mishap" a child has had!

Natalie also managed to mark my dad's footstool with a Sharpie and close herself into the bathroom in an attempt to squirt soap everywhere. She had a GREAT day!

biker babes

2011-01-17T18:29:00.001-05:00

I think both girls have a future as biker chicks.

Remember this post? Sarah hopped on the back of a child's motorized vehicle without hesitation.

It turns out she also has an obsession with tattoos. Temporary tattoos, thankfully. But she's passing it on to Natalie.

With some of her Christmas money, Sarah got some temporary tattoos at Wal-Mart. She was super excited about this. She could not wait to apply the tattoos to "make [herself] beautiful." The pack included things like rainbows and butterflies and flowers.

She's been tattooing the whole household. Natalie loves it.

Every time Natalie pulls up a sleeve or otherwise sees one of the tattoos Sarah has bestowed on her, she enthusiastically proclaims, "NICE!" She can say tattoo too. It sounds kind of like TAT-too, or sometimes TAT-tow. When she discovered some her tattoos were coming off, she woefully held up her now unadorned arm and said, "Want TAT-too?"

As long as the tattoos stay temporary, I think we'll be okay. :)

2010 top ten

2011-01-01T14:38:00.000-05:00

Choosing your Top 10 favorite blogs is HARD. I like so many of them, and they're all my favorites! But here is my best effort...for today, anyway. Tomorrow I might have a whole different list! :-p

10. Doctor Who fan series--review I'm not stupid; I know that no one cared about this post except for me. But I was so excited to have been asked to review this series. It was like I was a kid in elementary school again, and I got picked for the team.

9. A Few More Pictures I love this post because of the multi-generational photos. We don't get to see Nelson's side of the family nearly often enough, and so these pictures are precious.

8. Ponderings and Reflections A little deeper than my normal anecdotes-about-the-children fare.

7. A Few Random Photos Some sweet pictures of everyday stuff.

6. Got Yo? I love how babies mispronounce words as they are first learning to talk. I also loved that Natalie has already figured out that her frozen treats are different from the rest of us. So this post wins on two counts. Well, I confess to liking the title too; I thought it was rather clever.

5. I Can't Believe... A sweet story of Natalie trying to imitate her big sister.

4. I wish... One of those daily updates of things I will want to remember one day...with a humorous twist at the end. :)

3. A Great New Skill... I thought Sarah's logic was sound, even if her results weren't exactly correct.

2. I Have Seen a Vision of the Future. I'm not sure the story was as hilarious in print as it was in person. But watching it happen was one of THE funniest things I have ever seen.

1. Natalie's First Birthday. How could this not be my favorite of 2010?

Happy New Year!

2010-12-31T20:57:00.000-05:00

I have no exciting plans for ringing in the New Year. Frankly, I think I'm getting old, because I honestly just want to go to bed. But I do wish everyone a very happy and blessed 2011.

Later I will post some goals I have for the upcoming year; maybe if I post them publicly I'll be more likely to do something about them! Nothing like accountability. :) Also a friend of mine picked our her ten favorite blog posts for 2010 to do her own "Top 10" countdown. I may look back over my 2010 blogs and try to choose ten favorites for you. :) It sounds fun, anyway.

Happy New Year!

stain removal 101

2010-12-20T13:44:00.000-05:00

I don't have to tell anyone here that children are messy. Clothing will stain, and you will have to deal with it. Such is life.

However, this handy recipe will get a LOT of stains out of clothing. I have used it successfully on all sorts of stains. It hails from The Complete Tightwad Gazette, which I confess is one of my all-time favorite books. (I know, surprise, surprise. I can't help it; it's full of great tips and recipes and inspiration. Some naysayers complain that it is outdated, and I do confess that it's amusing to read discussions of records vs. CDs or whether or not one should buy a home computer. However, the principles are timeless even if the examples are not.)

The official recipe is 1 cup Clorox II + 1 cup Cascade powder + 5 gallons of the hottest water you can get from your faucet. Soak several garments overnight, then launder as usual. It is not recommended for delicate fabrics or items that are not colorfast.

I personally use Oxi Clean (or the Sun or Dollar Tree equivalent) and store brand dishwasher powder for this recipe. I also use less of the powders and less water. Still, it works--particularly on food stains.

I used it quite successfully last week on this:

Dawn dish soap (or equivalent) also makes a goo pre-treater for stains, particularly greasy ones. Apply directly to the stain. Launder as usual.

soft serve

2010-12-17T12:57:00.000-05:00

My friend TJ gave me this recipe, thinking it would be a good way for my lactose-intolerant daughter to have an ice cream equivalent as an occasional treat. The bonus was that 1) it's healthy and 2) we ALL liked it! The ingredients are things we have on hand pretty much all the time, so it's convenient to boot!

You will need:

2 frozen bananas
almond butter
honey
a blender

Unfortunately, there are no real amounts for this recipe; you have to go more by feel. I added a couple of pretty hefty spoonfuls of the almond butter, so I'm to guess about 1/4 cup, and a drizzle of honey that might have been around a teaspoon. Your mileage may vary. You could certainly add more honey if you like it sweeter or less if you need to save calories/reduce sugar. Blend. The consistency is definitely soft serve, not true ice cream, but the flavor is superb--mild and nutty. Natalie licked the bowl. Thanks, TJ!

This recipe is linked to Grocery Cart Challenge Recipe Swap and Nourishing Gourmet Pennywise Platter Thursday.

Richie Petrie lives...

2010-12-16T20:54:00.000-05:00

Okay, so no one but my dad is going to get that reference. So I'll explain.

My all-time favorite TV show is The Dick Van Dyke Show. No matter how many times I watch it, it's still funny. And the actors were so extraordinarily talented. Anyway, the son on the show, Richie (played by Larry Mathews), frequently hid in one of the kitchen cabinets. Rob or Laura would open the door to find him eating a snack or just hanging out.

I keep Tupperware and other plastics in the bottom cabinet in the kitchen (having plastic kept low means nothing will get broken; fragile items are stored up high). Over the last few days Sarah and Natalie have decided that they really like playing in this bottom cabinet. Sarah clears out the salad spinner and few other items, and they both climb in. I guess this is the advantage to their small size; they both fit!

So far, neither has tried to eat a snack in there (although Natalie has been known to take her almond milk), but I'll be on the lookout. (As long as they don't start being as whiny as Richie was. That's really my only complaint about the show; Richie was really an unlikable character at times.)

In other news, I've been giving the girls a dose of elderberry syrup every morning. Apparently the stuff must taste pretty good. I was still sitting at the table sipping coffee this morning and said out loud, as a reminder to myself as much as anything, "Next I'll give you each your elderberry." I hadn't moved yet to even open the refrigerator, but Natalie immediately opened her mouth, ready for the spoon!

A few more pictures...

2010-12-16T15:43:00.000-05:00

A few more pictures from September's California trip...if anyone likes pictures. ;)


In the hotel room...we were tired from flying all day, so she really wasn't in a "photo op" mood.


Natalie looks a little happier. She slept some on the plane.


Sarah had a great time with both her cousin Connor and her cousin-once-removed Chelsea!

This picture just cracks me up! What an expression!

Two of the Butterworth men...

This photo is a treasure...the cousins with the great-grandparents.

Everyone all together...4 generations.

And the younger two generations...

Can I just say that the updates Blogger has done make it SO much easier to upload and post pictures?

a few random photos

2010-12-06T16:50:00.000-05:00

I love this dress...especially with the hat. Natalie won't actually keep the hat on for very long, hence the need to preserve the moment via photograph.

See? She's already looking somewhat put out. I think the hat came off about 2.2 seconds after this picture got snapped.

Natalie loves to look at books. She doesn't actually like to be read to much; she sees Sarah reading independently and thinks she should be able to do the same!

Here, both girls are curled up for some reading time.

Hard at work.

better late than never?

2010-12-06T16:35:00.000-05:00

So...today I got our California pictures off of the camera! Considering that we visited California in September, this is probably enough after the event that no one actually cares about the pictures anymore. At least that would be the case if it weren't for the fact that most of my readers are family. Grandparents and aunts don't care that the photos are several months old. And some of the pictures are pretty good, I must say. Some of them even show Natalie smiling!


Natalie enjoying her yogurt breakfast as we get ready for our trip.


I love this picture of Sarah and Grandpa and the huge stuffed dog!


A good profile shot of Natalie.

I realize that most of these are of Natalie. The pictures I have of Sarah tended to be of her with other people...most especially my nephew Connor. She really enjoyed hanging out with him. However, I will try to post those to Facebook instead of here, because I know Tara and Nick are protective of Connor's pictures.

Next I'm going to post some miscellaneous pictures that I found hanging out on the camera!

got yo?

2010-12-01T21:51:00.000-05:00

Nelson LOVES ice cream. We don't have it in the freezer often, but when we do he eats it frequently and in quantity.

Natalie would love ice cream but of course can't have it. But in the interest of fairness, we try to get frozen yogurt if we get ice cream so that she isn't left out. She does love the frozen yogurt (and rice cream as well).

Nelson got himself a bowl of ice cream tonight. Natalie followed him into the kitchen begging, "Yo? Want yo? Yo?"

It just cracked me up, first her pronunciation (too cute!) and second that she already knows she that she gets yogurt rather than ice cream.

In other news, Sarah was disappointed that we were unable to get on the web cam with Grandma and Grandpa tonight. She started to cry. Natalie immediately went over to hug her big sister comfortingly. Aw...(even cuter is the fact that Natalie always says, "Hug" when she is hugging someone).

natural and logical consequences

2010-11-30T17:03:00.002-05:00

One parenting "expert" I like to read is Kevin Leman. One idea that he suggests (although it is not original to him) is the use of "natural and logical consequences" for behavior--the idea that the punishment "fit the crime." Sometimes you have to think of a consequence to fit this criteria, but sometimes it happens quite naturally on its own! This was the case yesterday.

Natalie has a habit of trying to play in my pantry, particularly with the spices. I keep the pantry closed up tight when I am not cooking, but sometimes the door the doesn't latch properly, and she finds an opening. I've been working on training her out, but I may not have to try to hard any more.

She got a hold of the cloves yesterday and even managed to get the lid off of the container. Then she got a whole mouthful of cloves! I had to laugh, but she didn't much care for the experience. I think she managed to make her whole tongue numb, and you should have seen her trying to scrape the spice off of her tongue! She hasn't been back in the spices since then. Granted it's only been a day, but still...kind of funny.

it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas....

2010-11-28T12:25:00.002-05:00

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving here, celebrating with my parents and grandmother. We skipped Black Friday shopping; I don't like crowds much, especially crazed crowds, and you'd have to pay me to get me out of bed at 3:00 a.m.! If you snagged a great bargain, I'm thrilled for you, but I don't need the hassle and stress. (And I saved 100% by not going out to shop!) ;)

We spent yesterday putting up Christmas decorations. The tree is up, the dish towels are out, the candles and knickknacks are on display, the mugs are ready to fill with coffee, tea, and cocoa. Nelson even bought some outdoor lights to decorate out deck. Sarah is beyond thrilled.

I am going to try to find our Advent study again; I think Sarah will be able to get more out of it this year since she is reading independently. I may see if there is a different one available--one she could do on her own more or less. We'll see, I guess. Maybe we'll do both!

Perhaps I'll try to post some pictures of our decorations...I probably owe some photos of something at some point, huh? ;)

In other news, we were all actually healthy enough to make it to church this morning! (Read: Natalie was healthy enough for us all to make it to church this morning.) Woo-hoo! Here's hoping we can stay that way for awhile!

a pox upon you

2010-11-23T10:42:00.003-05:00

Before I get to the actual post, I will mention that yesterday's post was the 300th here at Pancake Chronicles. How about that. Three hundred posts. I can't believe I had 300 in me! And yet, here we are at 301!

On Thursday, November 11, I took Natalie for her 18 month well child check-up. It was about six weeks late, but life's like that sometimes. She got a round of vaccines, including the chicken pox vaccine. This is a live vaccine, so any effects from it would not show up right away; they would hit 7-14 days after the vaccine.

I know a lot of people don't vaccinate for chicken pox, and I respect that. I, however,had a HORRIBLE case of chicken pox at age 17. The vaccine came out three months after that, and you can imagine my resentment of that! So, anyway, although we don't do flu shots, I have let the girls get the chicken pox vaccine.

Wednesday, November 17, Natalie awoke with a raging fever. She didn't really seem to have any other symptoms, so I thought the vaccine was rearing its ugly head. I figured the fever wouldn't last too long, and everything would be okay.

The fever kept climbing, all the way up to 103, and Motrin really didn't seem to be bringing it down all that much. It lasted through Thursday and although it was lower, it was still present on Friday. Off the the doctor we went.

The doctor found blisters on Natalie's throat and named a virus as the culprit. I'm not going to attempt to spell the virus she named. She said that it wouldn't last any longer than the weekend and that Natalie ought to start feeling better soon.

Saturday Natalie did seem to be perking up finally. She ate and drank more than she had in days. She played some, rather than clinging and fussing. I breathed a sigh of relief, thinking we were almost out of the woods.

We had no plans to take Natalie to church Sunday morning, not wanting to share her virus with the nursery. Good thing. Natalie woke up Sunday broken out on her face, belly, back, arms, and legs. Yeah, you guessed it--the bumps and spots looked just like chicken pox! Sigh...

Fortunately, the spots were already fading by yesterday, and today they look much clearer. But I'm exhausted and frustrated and definitely ready for a completely healthy child!

As a whole, Natalie has been much sicker than Sarah has ever been. Sarah has caught the normal childhood colds and such, but she was four and a half years old before she needed her first antibiotic. We had to rush her to the doctor twice for injuries--once when she burned her face and chin and around her eye, and once when the iron hit her in the head. But overall, Sarah has been healthy and whole.

Natalie, on the other hand, has had numerous colds and several ear infections. She gets wheezy and needs albuterol. We end up at the doctor a lot between check-ups. The irony is, I've probably been more interested in health and nutrition with Natalie than with Sarah. It just goes to show, I guess, how very different children are. No matter how you try to raise them, genetics play a big role, and you can't control everything.

Anyway, we're done with vaccines for awhile. Here's hoping we can be done with illness for awhile too! I think I'm going to buy the hugest bottle of elderberry extract I can find, and have Natalie start chugging it! ;) (Okay, obviously kidding there, but it is proven to boost the immune system, and I am going to see how she does with normal doses of it. No chugging...at least not yet.) ;)

If you would like to read a post...

2010-11-22T10:37:00.003-05:00

...you need to go here. I am guest-blogging at Rooted in Love today. However, if you read my Facebook notes, you've already seen this particular item, so it's up to you whether you want a repeat. :)

If you pay attention to my blog roll, Rooted in Love is one of the blogs listed there. Jill (or Jillian, as she goes by now, although I confess to having a hard time remembering to call her that) is one of those friends I have literally grown up with. Now she is a military wife and the mother of five. Her blog is challenging, inspirational, moving, and honest. I highly recommend it.

I spent $14 at the grocery store this week...

2010-11-15T22:02:00.007-05:00

...but don't be too impressed. We spent $87 last week.

And I still don't have dishwasher detergent. Sigh.

Furthermore, I'm out of borax, so I can't make dishwasher detergent. I think I will hit Dollar Tree when the weather is less horrible than what it is now. So we'll be up to $15 and some change for the week.

Here's some of what we're eating:

Breakfast
cinnamon raisin toast
smoothies
cereal and milk x 2
pumpkin pie oatmeal
waffles
doughnuts or toast

Lunch
leftovers or sandwiches or tortilla roll-ups

Supper
lentil and rice tacos, fruit salad with yogurt
potluck at co-op (we're bringing baked ziti and bread)
turkey, veggies, and fruit
ribs, potatoes, and veggies
supper with my parents
some sort of leftover remake (i.e. turn leftover turkey into something new and different)
possibly breakfast for supper, more leftover remake, or (if all else fails) eat out. (Sundays are rough).

Doctor Who fan series--review

2010-11-11T20:46:00.004-05:00

We are big fans of the BBC's Doctor Who. Even Sarah loves it, so much so that when given the opportunity to choose Natalie's middle name, she picked Rose--after one of the Doctor's companions. When we visit my parents, Sarah has been known to get the other children pretending that they are looking for the TARDIS. They have no idea what she's talking about, but they go along with it and have a good time anyway.

Some fans (mostly in the UK, I believe, although some are in the US and at least one is in Australia) have banded together to create their own Doctor Who stories. These will be audio productions only, but they have written the scripts and done all the directing and recording themselves--a true labor of love. They will be posting to the Internet as soon as they iron out a few glitches.

In the meantime, I have been asked to write up a review of the first three scripts. The fan girl in me is super excited about this. I have spent the last few days reading through the first three scripts and trying to get my thoughts together.

To kick things off, let me just say that I love the name "Little Blue Box Productions." It fits so perfectly. Although I haven't been able to listen to the entire series as yet (or even to the three stories I've read), the clips I have heard sound good. Even the actor reading the part of the Doctor sounds "Doctorish." I am looking forward to listening to the series as a whole.

I also like that there is an arc to the series, something that ties the separate stories together. The TV show does this quite well, with each season having that thread woven throughout, and I enjoyed seeing the fan series do this too. Having only read three scripts, I'm not in on what the big reveal will be, but I can see the hints being dropped, and I admit that my curiosity is piqued. Although I can enjoy the stories in and of themselves, I am drawn in, wanting to find more clues, wanting to know how it will all fit together.

Time travel is a huge part of Doctor Who, and a problem the Doctor often has is that things happen to him "in the wrong order." For example, he might run into someone who knows him but he does not know. Although the meeting has occurred already for the "stationary" acquaintance, it hasn't happened for the time-traveling Doctor yet. The fan series utilizes this well. The Doctor's companion is a young woman named Alicia. She remembers seeing the Doctor kill her father as a child. This event hasn't happened yet for the Doctor, and he is certain that there must be some mistake. He would never kill a man in view of a child! So he takes Alicia on his travels to try to prove himself to her. Now this is pure speculation, but I'm guessing somehow the series will wrap back around to the event from Alicia's childhood, and we'll learn "the rest of the story"--why the Doctor had to do what he did, or perhaps an alternate ending (another Doctor Who theme is that "time can be rewritten").

As for the three stories themselves, the first one seemed purely introductory. Titled "The Doctor, The Murderer" it sets the stage for the latter episodes. It introduces our cast of characters and our series arc. It asks questions it does not answer. As such, it is the least able to stand on its own, but I thought it set up the series well and whetted one's appetite for more.

"A Method in the Madness" brought back one of the villains from the TV series. I really would not have thought much more could have been done with these characters, but this story drew nicely from the TV episodes, while adding its own creative twist.

"A Hole in the Sky" is perhaps the most ambitious of the first three episodes. It felt a bit longer than the other two, more drawn out. I thought the concept was creative--not your run-of-the-mill villain. It jumped around some, and I found it a bit hard to follow at times, but it really was a unique, well-thought-out story.

Reading a script can be somewhat cumbersome; I really look forward to hearing the stories in their full audio form. Even the short clips I have listened to add so much. Lines that seem stilted when reading them "work" somehow when they are heard. And with music and sound effects, one can feel so much more a part of the action.

I salute the fans at Little Blue Box Productions; it's an ambitious project, but from what I've seen you've done a fine job. :)

Check out http://www.wix.com/fanaudioseries/lbbproductions if you want more information on the fan audio series. You can also find the links to some clips of the series there.

Happy Veterans Day

2010-11-11T17:08:00.001-05:00

I will be posting more later, but I wanted to make sure I wished all the veterans and families of veterans a blessed day today and said thank you! I especially thank my cousin Jon and my friend Lauren. I thank my friend Jill and her husband Ashley. I thank my brother-in-law Nick. I thank both my uncles. I thank my friend Kristen and her husband Cliff. I thank my friend Caryn. I thank my grandfather-in-law. I thank so many more whose names and families I do not know.

Sarah and I have been working through a Veterans Day study that I found, for I wanted her to know that this day is important. I confess that it is a bit difficult to explain the concept to a six-year-old, but we have done what we can.

I know that Veterans Day is more about honoring and thanking our living veterans, whereas Memorial Day is more about honoring the memory of those who do not make it home. However, I don't know that it is easy to separate the two. So I thought I would close with this video from my college friend Autumn. She wrote this song in memory of her husband, who was killed in Iraq, as a tribute to him and to so many others. She is also the one singing in this video. Happy Veterans Day. Please remember to thank a veteran!

Natalie says

2010-11-04T12:44:00.011-04:00

Dada/Daddy
Mama/Mommy
Peep-eye
Bye
Hi/hey
Baby
Whoa
Wow
Uh-oh
Give (as in, "Give that to me!")
Teeth
Thank you
Please
How are you?
Wanna go.
Want down.
Wanna see.
What's that?
Bobby (We have no idea who or what this refers to, but she says it quite clearly, and she says it a LOT.)
Mike
Sarah
Ow
Wanna sit
______________________________________________________________

Side (this is how she tells me she wants to nurse; she wants a "side")
Eat
There you go.
I see you.
Up
Tea
I stinky
Ew
Yuck
Have
Ball
Uh-huh
No
All full.
Fall (the verb, not the season)
Read
Shoe
Foot
Play
Walk
Phone
Hello
Fork (I hope she never says this in public).
Mine (yes, she's possessive).
____________________________________________________________________________
Now
Sock
Hair
Nose
Dog
Duck
Hey, you
Food
Drink
Yum
Cereal
Cheerios
Hug
Block
Play
Pay (a funny story with this one, which I will share after the list)
Suck (said when she wants her pacifier)
Out
Outside
Peep-poo (I've already blogged about this one)
Want
Wipe
Face
Five
Tortilla (new today!)
Cake (actually said in reference to a muffin, not actual cake)
Hot
Tickle
Look
Okay
Let go
Light
Bite

There's probably more that I'm forgetting. :-p But I will say that Natalie combines several of these into sentences and phrases. Also of note is that "tickle," "thank you," and "there you go" sound pretty much the same the way she says them; you basically have to go by context as to which one she means.

She got a hold of my wallet awhile back and pulled out my debit card. She handed it to me and said, "Wanna pay?"

I'll try to add more if I think of them!

cold remedies and salsa baby

2010-11-02T21:34:00.002-04:00

Eventually (if my dad will email me pictures) I will post Halloween photos. I had two "Buzzy" girls; Sarah was Buzz Lightyear, and Natalie was a "buzzy" bumble bee. They were of course adorable. Sarah was actually really excited because she got to wear her Buzz outfit again to homeschool co-op today.

On to the title of the post, however. Nelson has been recovering from a massive cold. He thought he got over it once, then relapsed. It's been a really bad one. He's managed to give milder versions of it to Sarah and Natalie, so I thought I'd post the remedies that have helped us.

Natalie tends to get ear infections every time she gets a cold or even just bad congestion. We've been religious about using the nasal syringe on her, but frankly it usually isn't enough. She also has prescription albuterol for when her wheezing and coughing get bad, but even that doesn't keep her from getting ear infections. This time I tried garlic oil. I did end up taking her to the doctor, who said she had some clear fluid on her ear, but it was NOT infected. This is huge. I won't say that it will work in every case, but I'm pleased.

Sarah started getting sniffly on Friday. I showed her how to use my neti pot (one of my favorite things ever). She has been faithfully rinsing several times per day, and she admits that it helps. She still coughs a bit, but she has yet to reach the levels of coughing and congestion that Nelson did.

Speaking of coughing...Nelson's cough was HORRIBLE. Cough syrup didn't help. Running the humidifier didn't help. Hot tea only temporarily stopped the coughing. He couldn't sleep. He kept me and Natalie awake (Sarah could sleep through a war zone--in her bedroom). We had tried just about everything. What finally worked? A good old-fashioned hot toddy! We mixed hot tea with honey, lemon juice, and a bit of whiskey, and finally we all got some relief! (I know some of my readers have problems with the recreational use of alcohol, but this was strictly medicinal!)

Sarah is asking for chicken soup tomorrow night, so I will make that for supper. Hopefully that will make everyone feel better, and we can be done with this lousy cold!

We voted tonight, and we decided to grab supper at our favorite Mexican restaurant on the way to the polls (I was headaching, so Nelson graciously excused me from cooking). Like most Mexican restaurants, they served us chips and salsa upon arrival. Natalie wanted to try some salsa on her chip. I dabbed it on a corner--just a little bit. Apparently she really liked it. She made a grab for the bowl of salsa. It tipped and sloshed salsa all over the table. She immediately stuck her hands in it and happily started slurping salsa off her fingers!

We always order Natalie some sliced avocado to eat at this restaurant. When she was a baby, I got to finish whatever avocado she didn't eat. I enjoyed this. Sadly, Natalie is now perfectly capable of polishing off all the avocado by herself, and I get no leftovers.

In addition to the salsa, Natalie snitched a little of Nelson's chorizo this evening. This did not go over as well as the salsa; I think it was too spicy for her.

Natalie can say both "Mommy" and "Daddy" perfectly. Unfortunately, she's very confused as to who's who! She keeps calling me "Daddy." We've been trying to correct her over the last couple of days. As I sat typing this, Natalie wanted to be picked up. She called me "Daddy." I told her I was Mommy. Apparently tired of trying to keep us straight, Natalie settled for "Hey, you!"

frugal failure (and other stuff)

2010-10-20T16:56:00.003-04:00

Blogging failure too--I keep meaning to blog more often, because I do have things to say, but between school, home, and family, I just don't seem to get it done. Sigh.

Anyway, everyone reading here (unless you are just randomly passing through) knows that I am a frugalista (sounds better than tightwad, doesn't it?). As such, I love Dollar Tree. I love their dishwasher detergent, their Oxy Clean knock-off, their body washes, their tubes of Crest and Colgate, and so much more. It helps our grocery budget a great deal that I can run into Dollar Tree and find a wide array of products for only a dollar. After all, tortillas are practically as necessary as air in this house; getting a pack for a dollar is fantastic!

There are definitely times, though, when cheaper isn't better...or even just as good. I recently bought Dollar Tree's kid 2-in-1 shampoo/conditioner for the girls. I won't be purchasing it again. Both Sarah and Natalie have inherited my thick hair, and it tangles like you would not believe. Dollar Tree's 2-in-1 simply did not have enough conditioner, and it could not get the knots out of their hair. We've gone back to buying Suave. We're all happier for it!

In other news, school is going well. I love, love, love our math curriculum (which is saying a lot, because I don't love math!). Sarah blows me away with how well she reads. We are getting a lot done and having a great time doing it. Sarah commented earlier today that "School can be hard work, but it's fun!" What more could I ask for?

I need to update Natalie's word list again, but honestly I just can't keep up. She adds so many new ones so frequently. I was so religious about keeping Sarah's list updated, and I just can't seem to maintain Natalie's as faithfully.

One funny addition to the word list is "Peep-poo." Natalie has been able to say "Peep-eye" for a long time now. Since Nelson is not a native Southerner, he often uses "Peek-a-boo" instead when playing with Natalie. Natalie has now combined the two. She will hide her face, then delightedly squeal, "Peep-poo!"

That's all for now. Hopefully I'll get the hang of blogging regularly again soon. At some point, I still need to post pictures from our California trip!

chocolate satin

2010-10-09T21:45:00.004-04:00

This is a mousse-like dessert. My lactose-intolerant daughter loves it, as she doesn't get to eat things like pudding. Plus, it's super healthy to boot! (If you're not a fan of avocado, don't worry--it purees in nicely, and you really just taste chocolate creaminess).

Chocolate Satin
2 ripe avocados
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1/4-1/2 cup agave nectar
2 tablespoons coconut oil
1 tablespoon vanilla
Blend until smooth.

This post is linked to the Grocery Cart Challenge.

Sarah is six

2010-10-04T17:26:00.004-04:00

Today is Sarah's sixth birthday. How in the world is she already six? I have no idea whatsoever...but she is. She's had a big "birthday weekend." On Friday, we went to Greeneville. My parents had presents and "ice cream" cake (it was actually frozen yogurt cake, so that Natalie could participate as well). On Saturday, we headed to the nearby park for pizza and play time with a couple of her friends. Today a gift card from my brother arrived; Sarah has already found a pink princess scooter she would like to purchase. She also got a wealth of presents from my grandmother (including a "pay check"), another check from Nelson's parents (her second "pay check"), and a card from her aunt and uncle. Wow!

Tonight she wants to go to La Carreta, a local Mexican restaurant. Then we'll be done birthdaying for awhile!

Sarah at about three months old...

Sarah in May of this year...

Happy birthday, Sarah!

Natalie says

2010-10-04T13:25:00.008-04:00

I can't keep up with Natalie's vocabulary. She adds words and phrases daily now, and I am certain that if I try to list them I will forget/leave out many. So here is my best effort, but it is in no way a comprehensive list. And it will probably change tomorrow!

Dada/Daddy
Mama
Peep-eye
Bye
Hi/hey
Baby
Whoa
Wow
Uh-oh
Give (as in, "Give that to me!")
Teeth
Thank you
Please
How are you?
Wanna go.
Want down.
Wanna see.
What's that?
Bobby (We have no idea who or what this refers to, but she says it quite clearly, and she says it a LOT.)
Mike
Sarah
Ow
Wanna sit
______________________________________________________________

Side (this is how she tells me she wants to nurse; she wants a "side")
Eat
There you go.
I see you.
Up
Tea
I stinky
Ew
Yuck
Have
Ball
Uh-huh
No
All full.
Fall (the verb, not the season)
Read
Shoe
Foot
Play
Walk
Phone
Hello
Fork (I hope she never says this in public).
Mine (yes, she's possessive).

There's more; I know there is. I just can't remember them all right now. I know I'll be kicking myself as soon as I post this for all the ones I forgot. But if I don't write it down on the spot, it seems to fall out of one of the holes in my Swiss-cheese brain. And then she adds something new a few minutes later!

long time, no write

2010-09-28T16:47:00.005-04:00

Sorry for falling off the blogosphere. We've been busy, but I haven't felt much like blogging. Still, I know grandparents and aunts and on occasion random strangers like to see photos and read updates. Sooo...here we go.

In early September, Nelson's parents blessed us with a trip to visit his grandparents in California. Sarah and Natalie got to see their grandparents, great-grandparents, and aunt and uncle all in one fell swoop! It was a wonderful visit, and we loved every minute. I need to get pictures of that posted, but they're still hiding out in the camera.

We've started school, and Sarah is doing a fabulous job. She reads extremely well and (just as important to me) loves it! She devours print right now--picture books, magazines, comics, and so on. She loves to draw as well, so I bought a book called Drawing with Children that she is excited to begin. She even seems to like doing math, which is a bit weird to me (I never enjoyed math). I'm really pleased.

Tuesday mornings we go to a local homeschool co-op at a nearby church. Sarah is in the kindergarten class, and she loves it. She looks forward to it all week, which I think is great. On Wednesdays, I have my Bible study at Celebration Church. This is another highlight for Sarah, who loves the children's class she gets to attend while I'm with the adults. (Natalie goes to both co-op and Celebration Church. She does well, but she's not really enthused about either yet.) ;)

Since I'm not sure these pictures ever really got posted to Facebook where anyone could actually view them, I'll mention that back in July Sarah did swimming lessons. A local college girl taught them at her family's house, in their private pool. Sarah and Natalie both loved the water! Sarah is still very much a beginner, but she showed a lot of improvement. Natalie absolutely could not wait for the end of the lesson each day, when "free swim" started, and she could get in the water too! I got so tickled at how excited she got each day as I put her swimsuit on her--she knew what that meant!

One of the other moms took some pictures for me, so I'll attach a few of them here, and then try again to get them to show up properly on Facebook! Ridiculously out-of-date photos are better than none at all, right?

All the swimmers practicing their kicks....

Yeah, it's a picture of me. Don't get used to it. Just focus on Natalie, okay?

I LOVE this picture of Sarah swimming underwater!

Miss Abi giving instruction...

Sarah never did get brave enough to jump off the diving board. But on the last day, she DID agree to jump into the deep end if Miss Abi would catch her. I was so proud--this was HUGE progress!

I can't believe...

2010-08-09T15:24:00.002-04:00

that I forgot to post this! I have already written how Natalie loves to brush her teeth and will beg to do so ("Teeth? Teeth? Teeth?") Friday, however, she did something new and different and completely unexpected in the whole brushing teeth department.

We have a stool in the bathroom that Sarah uses so that she can reach the sink to wash hands and brush teeth. While Natalie and I were in the bathroom Friday morning, Natalie was playing near the stool. I didn't really think anything of it. As I got ready to brush my own teeth, Natalie started the familiar refrain: "Teeth? Teeth? Teeth?" I handed her her toothbrush. She shook her head and refused to take it. Weird. She continued to ask though: "Teeth? Teeth? Teeth?" I tried again to hand her the brush and again she refused. She was now starting to cry in frustration that she couldn't make me see what she was wanting.

And then I noticed it. She wasn't playing near the stool; she was trying to climb on the stool. I helped her up on it. Again she asked, "TEETH?!"

I handed the toothbrush. "Brush teeth," I encouraged her. This time she took it and said, quite clearly, "Like Sarah." She tapped the brush on the side of the sink, just like she's seen her big sister do.

She brushed teeth happily after that, just like always. And she has stood on the stool every day since then to brush her teeth..."like Sarah."

ramblings

2010-08-09T11:06:00.002-04:00

Last night, I officially registered Sarah for kindergarten. The county school system went back to school today, and city schools started last week. Although we are homeschooling, she does need to be officially registered as attending school somewhere.

It was weird. She's not actually "going" anywhere (until September, when we start classes with a local co-op), but I still got a little teary-eyed going through the registration process. How did my baby get old enough to be in kindergarten anyway?

Natalie is now zooming up the stairs. She's quite pleased with herself.

I noticed Tara posted her grocery shopping results and a few menu ideas. I've kind of slacked off in that department. I've actually not been doing too badly though, as far as grocery shopping and menus go. It's funny; when you really don't have much money available, it really forces you to be creative and make the most of what you have. We've eaten pretty well, all things considered. Unfortunately, I don't remember specific purchases and prices, or even much in the way of specific meals. I know I bought a whole chicken. The chicken meat has already provided three meals, and I think I can get one more out of it. The bones will make stock, which will at least contribute to one or two more meals. Not bad at all!

I bought a "white whole wheat" flour last time I was at the store. I had been buying plain old whole wheat flour and white bread flour for my bread baking needs. But boy, did we love this white whole wheat stuff! So far, it's made an excellent loaf of sandwich bread and a lovely batch of rolls as well. I think I'm sold!

My friend Leah is challenging herself to go an entire year without eating out. I'm not that committed. I honestly enjoy eating out when I have the chance, and I know myself well enough to know I'd never make it a year. But I am learning to do a better job of finding a "Plan B" or thinking through what options we have on hand to come up with a tasty meal. It does take some creativity at times, since I can't eat most convenience foods, but I'm getting better at it!

I've been experimenting with whether it's better to plan a menu before I shop, or plan afterward with what I have on hand. Certainly a strong case can be made for either one! I've known incredibly frugal people who've done it either way. I'm kind of doing a mixture of the two right now. My Grocery Deals is a great resource. If you enter your zip code, it will link to the weekly sales ads for stores in your area. You can see what's a good buy and start making a list before you leave the house. Money Saving Mom posts store deals for just about every store out there (even combining them with coupons for the best savings), so I try to visit her site as well. Coupon Mom can also help with pairing coupons and sales, but I confess I find that site a bit cumbersome to use, and I don't visit there often.

Personal gripe: my favorite recipe search site was Recipe Zaar. I loved its ease of use. They have now revamped the site, including changing the name to food.com (how unoriginal is that?). I do not like it as well at all. I'm sulking. However, it never fails that if I like something, it either goes away entirely or changes beyond recognition. Blech. Okay, sulk over now.

As soon as Nelson sends me the pictures he got off the camera, I will post them here. So stay tuned!

more about Natalie

2010-08-04T10:37:00.002-04:00

Natalie has added "mmm-hmm" and "play" to her repertoire (probably more than that, but that's what I've been able to pick out!). She also says, "Read." (She actually could already say this, but I forgot to put it on the list the other day!)

I've noticed that she says "Want down?" exclusively, whether she wants up, down, off, or out. She can be sitting on your lap and quite appropriately say, "Want down?" However, she can also be standing on the floor and hold out her arms for you to pick her up and say, "Want down?" Yesterday, she was in the Pack and Play and wanted out. You guessed it: "Want down?" Clearly we need to work on "up" and "out"!

If you're on Facebook, you can read this in my status update, but I'll put it here too. Natalie will eat Sarah's crayons if she finds them (leads to some interesting shades of color in her diapers). Apparently she wanted to save one for a later snack; I opened the refrigerator to find part of a purple crayon sitting on the shelf.

the second child

2010-07-27T21:37:00.004-04:00

I've noticed something interesting: since Natalie has never been the "only child," she doesn't always know what to do with herself when she temporarily gets to be! One night when Sarah was staying with my parents, Natalie turned into an utter ham, enjoying having all the attention to herself.. Other times though, especially since Sarah has spent quite a bit of time playing with the neighbor's granddaughter this summer, Natalie seems a bit lost. She gets clingy and fussy. She'll play some, then fuss and cling some more. You can tell she really misses her big sister!

I think it's sweet, but I confess I don't really "get' it. I too am a second child, and I remember just enjoying getting to be an "only" once in awhile! Maybe it's because I have a brother rather than a sister? Or maybe because the age gap between my brother and me is larger than the gap between Natalie and Sarah? I don't know.

I think we've got a few pictures, both from the recent Fun Fest and from earlier this evening. Hopefully I'll be able to post those soon.

P.S. I thought of something else regarding Natalie and Sarah's "word lists." At 15.5 months, BOTH girls could say "Mike." ;)

Natalie says

2010-07-26T21:09:00.004-04:00

When Sarah first started talking, I created a document to keep track of what she was saying when. I first started tracking when she was about 15 months old. Natalie is closing in on 16 months, so here's a list of what she can verbalize.

Dada/Daddy
Mama
Peep-eye
Bye
Hi/hey
Baby
Whoa
Wow
Uh-oh
Give (as in, "Give that to me!")
Teeth
Thank you
Please (This is new as of yesterday, and it sounds like "pea".)
How are you?
Wanna go.
Want down.
Wanna see.
What's that?
Bobby (We have no idea who or what this refers to, but she says it quite clearly, and she says it a LOT.)
Mike
Sarah
Ow
Wanna sit (She's only said this once, to Nelson.)

I'm looking at this list, and then looking back at Sarah's list. I really remember Sarah being an early talker, but her "words" list from 15.5 months is NOTHING like this! I had a list of thirty-two words that Sarah could say at that age, but they are just words--no phrases or sentences like Natalie has (and she has several!).

I'm thinking either I'm just better at deciphering the "baby talk" with Natalie (although some of these phrases are so crystal clear anyone who hears her knows what she's saying; a clerk at Wal-mart about fell over when Natalie asked, "How are you?"), or interacting with Sarah has taught Natalie more advanced language skills.

Whatever the case may be, it's interesting. I'll try to keep updating Natalie's list of words (and phrases and sentences) like I did for Sarah. It will be neat to compare them at various intervals!

Sarah and Natalie

2010-07-24T11:50:00.001-04:00

I have seen a vision of the future...

2010-07-05T17:02:00.003-04:00

Last night we went over to the house of some friends for "sparklers and s'mores." It was a fun Fourth of July party. Our friends have a son named Ashur, who is Sarah's age. She was looking forward to going to play with him and even drew him a picture for the occasion.

We were the first to arrive at our friends' house (even though we were a few minutes past the start time). Ashur has one of those battery-powered vehicles that children drive around in. Some look like Jeeps, but Ashur's is more like a four-wheeled ATV--just the "Power Wheels" children's version. Ashur had been driving around in the neighborhood with his daddy when we arrived.

He drove up the driveway and into the backyard where we were. He stopped next to Sarah. "Hey, you want a ride?" Without hesitation, she climbed on behind him and clung to his waist as he drove around the yard.

Ashur's mom and I both cracked up. It was reminiscent of a teenage coming-of-age drama, where the young man rides up on a motorcycle and greets the girl with, "Hey, baby, want a lift?" and they ride off into the sunset or something!

ponderings and reflections

2010-07-01T14:02:00.002-04:00

For the summer, instead of a Bible study, the women of my church are doing more of a "book club" type thing. We are reading C.J. Mahaney's Living the Cross--Centered Life. This is the first book I've read by Mahaney (although he quotes Charles Spurgeon, John Piper, Jerry Bridges, and R.C. Sproul, so he must be good, right?).

It's a small book, only 156 pages, with short chapters--nice, light summer reading.

Or maybe not.

This book is short, simple, and profound. It cuts to the heart. And it exposes my own sinful pride.

In one chapter, describing the crucifixion, Mahaney asks with whom we most identify. Faithful John, standing by the cross, caring for Jesus' mother? Peter, weeping bitterly because he has failed, both Jesus and himself? The thief on the cross--a great sinner, yet willing to repent and convert? The loyal women, standing nearby?

I am not so arrogant as to compare myself to Mary or John. But I think part of me likes to think I resemble the centurion--a poor ignorant schmuck just minding his own business. Sinful, sure, but mostly because he doesn't know any better. And then he sees the truth and acknowledges Jesus as the Son of God.

Then Mahaney reminds me: we are ALL the people in the crowd. You remember the crowd--that noisy, riotous, rebellious bunch who hated Jesus and were screaming, "Crucify Him!" We are all enemies of God; Calvinism calls it "total depravity." Scripture reminds us that "no one seeks after God, not even one."

Not even me. I am in the crowd, angry and hostile. Mahaney writes, 'Even if you can't recognize yourself among the angry faces, or distinguish your own strident voice...He can." This is the gospel in a nutshell. I, like Paul, can label myself the "chief of sinners." Not ignorant or unaware, but purposefully, rebelliously sinful. There is no hope, and nothing in me that will choose God. I will always choose my own way instead.

In the garden, Jesus prayed for the Father to take the cup from Him. The cup is God's wrath, which we all deserve to drink fully. But even after praying that prayer, Jesus submits to drinking that cup...down to the very last drop. God's wrath is poured out in its entirety...on Jesus. I deserve the cup, but there is nothing left in it for me to drink.

And that is why we have "no condemnation." That is why we can come "boldly before the throne of grace." That is why we have "a future and a hope."

To which we can only say a very heartfelt "Praise the Lord!"

adventures in frugality (alternate title: maybe sweetened condensed milk isn't so expensive after all...)

2010-06-28T16:29:00.003-04:00

So it's Menu Plan Monday, and I don't have much of a menu plan OR shopping plan yet. We did do a run to Food City last night. We were out of cheese (an emergency around here, to be sure!), and Natalie had no rice milk.

We, um, ended up buying a bit more than cheese and rice milk. We actually spent $31.22. We bought eggs, and butter, and napkins, and sandwich meat, and bananas.

Oh, and ice cream. Because that is such a necessity of life, isn't it?

So...I thought I'd see how much of a menu plan I could come up with what I have on hand at the moment. And then I'll plan a shopping trip for the rest of the week. It probably won't be pretty, because I'm going to have to buy diapers, and wipes, and sugar. Sigh.

I am making French bread at the moment (using up the last of my sugar supply, which means I can't make sweet tea, which is another crisis around here). But I figure the bread can do double duty. Tonight we will have panini press sandwiches for supper (along with applesauce and maybe yogurt). Tomorrow we can have French toast for breakfast.

Tomorrow evening we will have chicken enchiladas. I can't wait to try this recipe. It's the "no cream soup" that sold me on it! (I will be using homemade chicken stock in place of the can of broth.) Green beans can be our side dish.

Wednesday's breakfast will either be leftover French toast or cereal. I don't have time to make breakfast on Wednesdays because of our morning Bible study class. For supper, I may do breakfast-for-supper. Nelson makes killer omelets, we have bacon, and I can easily make muffins or pancakes or something with fruit.

Thursday morning I will either do smoothies for breakfast--Sarah and Natalie both love these, and we have bananas! :) Supper will either be curried lentils or sweet and sour lentils with rice. I would do lentil tacos, but I'm out of chili powder...and garlic.

I can do Amish baked oatmeal for breakfast Friday, but now I'm fresh out of ideas for Friday's supper and for the weekend. So I'll report back once I've done that diaper-wipes-sugar-chili powder-whatever else shopping trip.

Oh, and if you've made it this far and are still wondering about the title...well, a couple of weeks ago I came across a recipe for iced coffee. You simply combined 6-8 cups coffee with one can of sweetened condensed milk in a pitcher. Cool, refreshing, and delicious.

I was craving some this morning, but I had no sweetened condensed milk. I have a wee bit of powdered milk though, and I remembered that my beloved Tightwad Gazette had a recipe for making sweetened condensed milk out of powdered milk.

I only had half the powdered milk called for, so I halved the recipe. I also didn't have enough sugar, so I used Splenda. And, well...I'm less than thrilled with the results. The coffee tastes okay, but it keeps separating and it looks weird. I think I'll hold off on making the beverage again until I actually have sweetened condensed milk on hand (although Sarah assures me the drink is delicious! I think she just wants to make sure she gets some).

So, a bit hit and miss in the frugality department this week...more miss than hit, honestly. :( Surely I can improve from here, right???

random

2010-06-23T17:23:00.003-04:00

I really am trying to get back in the habit of blogging more regularly...if for no other reason that I can't remember anything that happens if I don't write it up and post it! I had a running list in my head for this post, and I'm not sure now that I even remember it all. :-p

Sunday of course was Father's Day. On Saturday, I told Sarah she could pick out a gift for Nelson. She went to Dollar General and chose not one, but two foam toy swords. Why two? Well, one for her and one for her daddy, of course! Why did they each need a sword? So they could have a sword fight! Hmm, you think Sarah's love language is spending time together? ;)

She is reading over my shoulder a good bit as I write these days, so I may have to practice being discreet as I phrase things--especially if it concerns her!

My gift to Nelson was a dinner at O'Charley's--Louisiana sirloin! YUM!

I kind of dropped the ball on the whole grocery/menu plan thing. I was working on a menu plan and a grocery list, but it kind of never came together. Then Nelson did a grocery run with Sarah and Natalie. I love that I didn't have to do the shopping, but we did end up with a few impulse purchases. :) So I'm going to start again next week.

We did have a very frugal meal of quiche (cheap entree!) and turnips last night. The turnips were free and fresh from our neighbors' garden. The turnips themselves were all right, and I'm going to mash some of them like mashed potatoes later. We did discover, however, that Sarah is the only one who likes turnip greens! Sorry, there's not enough vinegar in the world to make those palatable!

And I'm proud to say that the one gallon of milk Nelson purchased will stretch into two. We usually drink 1% milk (well, Nelson and Sarah drink 1% milk. I occasionally use it on cereal, but I'm not a milk drinker. Natalie drinks rice milk). Nelson bought a gallon of whole milk this time. I divided it into two separate containers (half a gallon in each one). Add water to fill up the rest of the way and voila! You have two gallons of roughly 1 or 2% milk. (I froze one of the gallons so it wouldn't go bad while the other was being used.) Instant savings of 50%!

Saturday we will go out for our anniversary (ten years!). It's our yearly date. That's about all we manage! (Although we did have a date in January this year, so there you go. For your tenth anniversary, you celebrate by having two dates that year! Ha!)

Oh, this is too cute. Natalie can't eat ice cream. We've bought her frozen yogurt a few times. Once at the store we noticed rice milk ice "cream." It was super expensive though. I joked with Mom that it would have to be a special birthday/Christmas kind of treat--certainly not anything we could do often. On Monday, I went to a woman's book club at church. Nelson took the girls out to Chick-Fil-A (when I am not there, Sarah likes to go places where I can't eat, like Chick-Fil-A, KFC, or Pizza Hut). He bought himself and Sarah ice cream for dessert. He felt guilty though that Natalie couldn't have any. So when he did his grocery shopping afterward, one of his impulse purchases was "rice cream" (I think I just coined a new phrase!) for Natalie! Isn't he sweet? Natalie loves it, by the way!

That's all I can think of for now. Very random post!

teeth? teeth? teeth?

2010-06-16T16:11:00.002-04:00

Natalie currently has twelve teeth (including four molars), and I think she's working on one or two more. Quite the mouthful! And you have never seen a child absolutely adore her toothbrush as much as this one does! If she's upset, handing her the toothbrush can calm her down. If she's getting into something, handing her the toothbrush will distract her. She doesn't really brush with it; she just kind of chews on it. But boy, does she love it!

If she sees me or Sarah or Nelson brushing our teeth, she immediately starts reaching her hand toward where her own toothbrush sits and starts begging, 'Teeth? Teeth? Teeth?" If she's in the bathroom and just happens to see the toothbrush, it's the same. Occasionally, she make a whole sentence and say, "Brush teeth?" But usually it's just the refrain of "Teeth? Teeth? Teeth?"

She doesn't actually like when Nelson or I brush her teeth though--she only likes to hold the toothbrush herself and chew on it! I think I find that funniest of all. With all this toothbrush love, you'd think brushing her teeth would be easy. It's actually a battle though, because she wants to do it herself and do it her way.

P.S. She tried to eat a crayon today. That toothbrush was handy for getting bits of red crayon out of her teeth! (And she definitely does have at least two more teeth coming in!)

a few more...

2010-06-16T14:23:00.002-04:00

experiment

2010-06-16T11:40:00.004-04:00

Two of my favorite blogs are Money Saving Mom and Grocery Cart Challenge. Both of these women do a phenomenal job of feeding their families on a tight budget. Their methods are not quite the same, but they both work and I learn so much from each of them.

Every week each blog posts a recap of the grocery trip--where they shopped, what they bought, what they spent. They give a chance for other bloggers to "link up" and post their own grocery shopping successes. I am in the process of trying to apply some of the tips from these ladies to lower our grocery bill. I thought if I participated in the shopping recap each week, it would hold me accountable to my goals and also allow me to chart my progress (at least I hope there's progress!).

I don't have pictures of my haul like they do, so this will just be a summary. Maybe next week I can add the photos. I also did not browse store ads or use coupons this week; I will try to add that in next week, as well as perhaps participating in the menu planning prior to shopping that GCC hosts. I'm just winging it this week (for the record, so far this week we've had country ham, lentil tacos, and pasta bake. Tonight it's pork chops).

Here's what I bought:

Dollar Tree:
dishwasher detergent
oxygen stain remover
women's shaving cream
shampoo
men's body wash
2 tubes toothpaste
Total: $7.67

Food City:
Dannon vanilla yogurt $2.99
1 doz. eggs $1.29
extra sharp cheddar $3.99
rotini pasta $.89
spaghetti sauce $1.67
Lay's potato chips $3
Valu Time frosted flakes $1
Valu Time honey nut oats $1
vegetable oil $2.19
Hillshire Farms roast beef $3.99
omeprazole $7.65 (normally this is a separate purchase from groceries, and normally we buy Prevacid, but we needed it immediately and this is what they had).
Total: $32.15

Nelson had gone on a quick run to Food City the day before because I was completely out of coffee (very bad thing). He bought coffee and orange juice. He spent $9.48 on that trip (coffee is expensive).

Grand total: $49.30 We'll see if I can lower that as the weeks go on!

This post linked to GCC Shopping Roundup.

Natalie's first birthday

2010-06-15T11:00:00.003-04:00

We did Natalie's first birthday at my parents house. Since Nelson's parents weren't able to come, we also had a web cam visit with them briefly. Natalie had a great time opening up and playing with her gifts (well, when she could get them away from Sarah, anyway). So without further ado, here are some photos from the occasion!

Natalie is not the poser for the camera that Sarah is...

Sarah, ahem, "helping" Natalie open her gift...

Hmm, what is this?

Natalie on the web cam with Grandma and Grandpa...

Sarah chatting with Grandma and Grandpa...

a few more pictures and other random stuff

2010-06-14T17:01:00.003-04:00

Time keeps marching on, whether I blog or not, doesn't it? Funny how that happens. Those on Facebook know we've been watching a family of birds (Carolina wrens to be exact) on our patio. The mama bird built a nest in the ash can to Nelson's grill, and the baby birds have (mostly) hatched. We see the mama several times a day arriving with food in mouth for the babies.

Natalie is walking all over the place, chasing after Sarah, and talking up a storm. She especially likes to say, "How are you?" She says it a LOT. She's also fond of taking all the DVDs out of the cabinet and scattering them all over the living room!

Sarah is loving reading and today discovered some of Nelson's and my old comic strip books (Garfield, Peanuts, U.S. Acres). She's looked through the pictures in these books before, but she was thrilled to be able to read the words now.

She's very literal. She asked Nelson to help with a problem on her computer. He said, "Give me just a minute." She counted to sixty then informed him his minute was up!

Apparently we need to talk about money though. Sarah knows we have to have money to buy food and pay bills, but she doesn't seem to understand what money is. She thinks if she just writes an amount on a piece of paper, this is acceptable currency. She plans to pay our insurance bill for us in this manner.

Nelson recently acquired a used John Deere riding lawnmower. He had a push mower we had bought at the other house, but it was taking him upward of three or three and a half hours to mow our much larger yard here with that. He found a good deal in the local classifieds last week. His first attempt to mow with the riding mower took under two hours--quite the time savings! He thinks it will get faster as he gets better at it too.

Okay, okay, the pictures you've been waiting for...now I warn you, these aren't the greatest. They're from my cell phone. But with all the clamor, I figured blurry, low-quality photos were better than no photos at all, right? ;)

This is from last week. Sarah decided to style Natalie's hair for her, and these are the results. With the little bit pulled up on top like that, we thought she resembled Pebbles Flintstone!

These next three are from Cinco de Mayo (May 5). We went to a local Mexican-ish (think Subway-style taco/burrito bar) restaurant. Some friends of ours were the live musical entertainment for the evening. Sarah really, really wanted a margarita. We weren't sure they would be able to accommodate her on that (this is a fast food-type place, so I figured they might just have pre-mixed margaritas that they blended with ice and therefore no way to make one sans alcohol). But they were able to whip up a virgin one after all, and Sarah was thrilled.

It pays to know the band--our friends let Natalie play an instrument too!

Natalie really wants to get the camera/phone...

That's all for now! But Nelson tried again to send me pictures, so if it worked this time, I'll post more later!

we have a picture!

2010-06-01T15:14:00.004-04:00

Okay, so it's been a really long time since I posted a picture here. I've had all kinds of trouble trying to photos onto my computer....whether said photos were on a camera, a CD, or a thumb drive. Just couldn't get it to work. Very frustrating, to be sure, especially since I had some really good pictures I wanted to share!

Nelson finally got a bunch of pictures off the camera last night onto his computer. He tried to send a bunch to me in a zip file.

Apparently something is seriously messed up on my computer when it comes to pictures. I got one.

But...here's the one! This is from Natalie's birthday back in March. She's opening one of her gifts. Enjoy! Hopefully we'll be able to get more on here soon!

giveaway

2010-05-06T15:45:00.002-04:00

Passing along the word that some friends of mine are adopting a little boy from China, and they are making and selling custom necklaces as a fund-raiser. They are currently holding a giveaway of one of those necklaces, and you can go enter for a chance to win (as well as read all about Moses!) here.

muddling along

2010-04-20T10:51:00.003-04:00

Yes, we're still here. It's been awhile since I posted anything, and even longer since I posted some personal family news. Truthfully, I haven't been keeping up with much online--even my email inbox got horribly backed up!

So what have we been up to? Mostly just little pieces of this and that. We've had some positively gorgeous spring weather. Sarah has played outside in it, we've eaten supper on our deck, and we've even had a couple of fun play dates. :) We've visited my parents a few times. We've toured a homeschool co-op to see if we were interested in joining next year (Sarah loved the kindergarten room and already knew one of the girls attending there, so she is VERY interested). ;) We finished our preschool homeschool curriculum and are over halfway through our "learn to read" curriculum (I am so impressed with this--Sarah is reading very well, and I can't wait to see how well she's doing once we've finished the whole thing!). I am going to go to a curriculum sale in May to look for deals on what we need for next year.

I have been very tired. Natalie stopped sleeping for awhile. She was waking up throughout the night, screaming in pain, thrashing around, and sometimes passing a lot of gas. I started watching more closely what solid foods she was eating each day. I started giving hefty doses of Mylanta. I talked with her doctor. I began to wonder if we would ever sleep again.

The culprit, apparently, was lactose. She can eat yogurt just fine. But drinking milk or eating ice cream just killed her. So we switched to rice milk (and on those occasions where a treat was warranted, frozen yogurt). Natalie started sleeping again, and I feel halfway human! Yay! (I really need to start making my own yogurt.)

Natalie is cruising around like a pro. She can stand alone for a moment or two, but no steps as yet. She likes to be outside in the fresh air and sunshine, but she does NOT like to be put down in the grass! She can hold up her arms for you when you putting on her shirt. She says Ma-ma, Da-da, Daddy, hi, hello, okay, and peep eye (sounds more like ghee-ga, but it's peep eye!) She says something that sounds like "ee-ah" which I think is supposed to be Sarah.

Sarah is enjoying a weaving loom that my parents got for her. She has made a coaster for us and is working on others for various family members. She's getting really good at it!

I need to get pictures on here, and on Facebook....hopefully soon. :-p

That's us for now. Hope everyone else is doing well!

review

2010-03-24T13:23:00.001-04:00

This post is going to be a bit different. I received a complimentary copy of the Busy Mom's Devotional Bible. In return, I am supposed to post a review of it. So here goes.

My main study Bible is a Ryrie, and it's kind of falling apart from frequent use. So it was exciting to receive a cute new Bible. I really love the feminine colors and the easy-to-carry size of this Bible. It has that "new Bible" smell, which is fun. ;)

The devotions included in the Bible are broken down into one minute, five minutes, and ten minutes. Each ends with a thought to carry with you or reflect upon throughout the day. I liked having the option to choose a longer or shorter reading, and I especially liked that it didn't end with the reading itself; you got something to take with you.

The devotions aren't terribly deep (how deep can you go in one minute?), but they DO contain good reminders and encouraging insights. References were given for further reading, and one could use these as a springboard for more in-depth study.

But that really isn't the design of this Bible. It's for the super-busy mom who just needs a really quick time in the Word and then she's off. I actually think it would make a GREAT gift for moms of newborns. The short readings would be ideal for that season of life when finding time for a shower is difficult, never mind finding time for Bible study! One reviewer mentioned reading a devotional while zapping something in the microwave, simply to refocus and recharge in the middle of the day. That would be a wonderful use for this Bible as well.

But I don't think it should be your only time with the Lord for very long. Let's face it; if you can only find a minute in your day for God, you are going to starve spiritually. Revamp your schedule if you're really that busy.

On a more personal note, the Bible is New International Version (NIV), and I much prefer the New American Standard (NAS). But that is my own preference and doesn't really count against the devotional Bible concept. I probably will only use the Bible on occasion, because I am more the "study Bible" type than the "devotional Bible" type. But for what it's trying to accomplish, I think this Bible does a very nice job.

recovering

2010-03-18T18:34:00.004-04:00

A week ago Wednesday, Natalie woke up bawling about 2:00 a.m. She continued to cry, wail, and thrash throughout the night. When we got up for the day, she was listless and lethargic and burning up with fever. A trip to the doctor confirmed an ear infection, and she started a round of antibiotics. (I know I covered all this in a previous post, but I do have a point, I promise!).

After a few days of antibiotics, she was starting to feel better (although dealing with the laundry caused by all those nasty diapers was wearing a bit on me!). Sunday evening we went to church (I let her sleep in Sunday morning). Apparently, even evening church was a mistake.

In the wee hours of Tuesday morning (around 2:30 a.m.--apparently the 2 o'clock hour is cursed), Natalie woke up crying. Within minutes, she threw up all over me (lovely, I know). She continued to vomit throughout the night and into the morning. Clearly, she'd caught some sort of stomach virus. Just what every girl recovering from an ear infection needs, huh?

By noon on Wednesday (yesterday), Sarah joined the ranks of the stomach bug-afflicted. Nelson started shortly thereafter. And then I succumbed as well. Virus: 4. Butterworths: 0. End game.
'
Quite possibly the only good thing about stomach bugs is that they don't last long. Natalie was happy and playful yesterday and kind of confused as to why no one was happy and playful with her. Sarah was asking for pizza (of all things!) today. Nelson has been working as usual (it helps that his commute time is so short!)

I am beginning to recover as well, although I am a bit slower in doing so. I got pretty dehydrated during the illness, and it's taking me awhile to bounce back from that. I still feel weak and tired.

But...the sun is shining, and the warm weather promises that spring might just come soon. Natalie is almost finished with her antibiotic and has a follow-up appointment on Monday. Hopefully she will get the "all clear", and we will be done with sickness for awhile! :)

Psalm 103

2010-03-15T21:13:00.001-04:00

In my Bible study today, this passage came up. I really found it a great passage on which to meditate, so I thought I'd share it here. Enjoy!

Psalm 103 (New International Version)

Psalm 103

Of David.

¹ Praise the LORD, O my soul;
all my inmost being, praise his holy name.

² Praise the LORD, O my soul,
and forget not all his benefits-

³ who forgives all your sins
and heals all your diseases,

⁴ who redeems your life from the pit
and crowns you with love and compassion,

⁵ who satisfies your desires with good things
so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's.

⁶ The LORD works righteousness
and justice for all the oppressed.

⁷ He made known his ways to Moses,
his deeds to the people of Israel:

⁸ The LORD is compassionate and gracious,
slow to anger, abounding in love.

⁹ He will not always accuse,
nor will he harbor his anger forever;

¹⁰ he does not treat us as our sins deserve
or repay us according to our iniquities.

¹¹ For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
so great is his love for those who fear him;

¹² as far as the east is from the west,
so far has he removed our transgressions from us.

¹³ As a father has compassion on his children,
so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him;

¹⁴ for he knows how we are formed,
he remembers that we are dust.

¹⁵ As for man, his days are like grass,
he flourishes like a flower of the field;

¹⁶ the wind blows over it and it is gone,
and its place remembers it no more.

¹⁷ But from everlasting to everlasting
the LORD's love is with those who fear him,
and his righteousness with their children's children-

¹⁸ with those who keep his covenant
and remember to obey his precepts.

¹⁹ The LORD has established his throne in heaven,
and his kingdom rules over all.

²⁰ Praise the LORD, you his angels,
you mighty ones who do his bidding,
who obey his word.

²¹ Praise the LORD, all his heavenly hosts,
you his servants who do his will.

²² Praise the LORD, all his works
everywhere in his dominion.
Praise the LORD, O my soul.

reading, heaven, and other miscellany

2010-03-13T19:36:00.005-05:00

Sarah is at that stage in the learning to read process where she tries to read everything (often she is successful). Today we went to Wal-Mart to get her Prevacid, as well as some oil for Nelson to use for the cars. All Wal-Marts have that "Always Low Prices" sign posted outside (well, all the ones I've seen anyway). As we pulled into the parking lot and began looking for a space, Sarah excitedly exclaimed, "They have low prices!"

Sarah is currently obsessed with two things: getting married and heaven. She talks constantly about how she wants to get married. When playing with a little boy at my parents, she even managed to get him volunteering for the task! She is also quite insistent that she wants to go to heaven to see God. Right. Now. She says she wants to talk with Him, and not just "in her brain." When I said I would miss her, she said Daddy, Natalie, and I could come too, and we would just all live in heaven together. One day when she had a bit of a cold, she wanted to clarify that there was no congestion in heaven! It's really been on her mind a lot.

Natalie can now say Dada/Daddy, hi, hello, Ma-Ma, okay, hey, and Mike. Once she even clearly said, 'My Mike." (Her big sister may argue this point!)

She is also pulling up on everything in sight and cruising around quite well. She turns a year old at the end of this month, believe it or not (I'm not sure I do!) She babbles constantly, in addition to the words she can say clearly.

She currently has an ear infection, although she is starting to feel better now that she is on the antibiotic. She has now had more antibiotics in the first year of her life than Sarah has had in all five of hers! Sigh. I think I'm going to buy her some elderberry extract....

I know we need to get some pictures posted. I still haven't gotten the Christmas photos on here! Hopefully soon I can get that done (assuming anyone still wants to see Christmas pictures!). I also have a lot of other cute photos on the camera; I just can't get them off! :-p

a great new skill--just not quite correctly carried out

2010-02-10T21:08:00.003-05:00

When one comes across a word that is unfamiliar, there is always the option to look it up in a dictionary to learn the definition (or go to dictionary.com, in this modern world). But sometimes one can figure out the meaning of the word based on how its used in a sentence. This skill is called using "context clues", and it's an important one taught in school.

Sarah tried to use context clues to discern the meaning of a word recently. Unfortunately, she didn't quite get it right. She came into the kitchen and stated, "Mommy, surviving is dying." Wondering how she had gotten so mixed up I said, "No, surviving means that you live."

"In the movie it means dying," she insisted.

"What are you talking about?" I asked.

"The movie Wall-E," she said.

Oh. Now I got it. There is a scene in the movie where the captain states, "I don't want to survive. I want to live!" As adults, we get his meaning; he didn't want survival, he wanted to enjoy his life to the utmost. But Sarah, trying to figure out the meaning of this word survive, came to a very logical (albeit incorrect) conclusion. If the character was contrasting surviving with living, then surviving must mean the opposite of living, right?

Wow. I was actually really impressed with how well she had applied the use of context clues--even if her result wasn't spot on.

Speaking of new skills, Natalie pulled herself up to standing today! She used the couch and actually remained standing for several minutes while clinging to the couch cushion. Both the girls keep growing up on me! What's the deal with that? ;)