It's Been Real Fun, but I'm Glad We're Done!

I don't know what in the world Darin is going to do with all his new free time! No school papers to write, assignments to grade, trips from work to school and back again each day. There were many times when I thought maybe Darin should quit his job and just get through school going full time. And there are many times Darin was tempted to do it, especially when the swinging focus of his days got to him. Worrying about school while at work, worrying about work while at school, worrying about church callings, family drama, and all the home improvements we have been making in between them all. In the end, he just couldn't make himself take on all that debt when he knew there was another way. He worked full time, went to school part time, and the last years also worked as a TA. Of course, we did have to take on some debt, but when I think about the position we could be in at this point...well, I'm just so grateful for his sacrifice.

We weren't going to take the kids to graduation but I am glad we did. Miriam and I had made crafts and gifts for Darin so although she didn't know what a graduation was (or "grad-U-lation") she knew it had to be special, and she would have been sad to have been left behind. Although maybe next time someone graduates she will have a "been there done that" attitude. We splurged on an ice cream cake and little M who is nortorious for giving away surprises with her hints did it again "I am not going to tell you what it is, but we got a yummy surprise at the ice cream shop".

What a good day!

Impromtu Craft

Miriam woke up with a sick tummy today so all our plans were changed. No morning walk, no gymnastics, no friends, no shopping. It's cold outside too.

Miriam remembered seeing this craft in the American Girl magazine we looked through at the library a few days ago. She also remembered that I had said we could make them "someday" and found the empty bottles. We hung them in the windows of her house so that when her friend open the windows they get a fishy surprise!

Miriam colored for 1 1/2 hours, watched Dragon Tales 1/2 hour, listened to one of her fairy stories on CD 1 hour, made Bub giggle for 1/2 hour, made me play pretend games for what seems like 3 hours, took a bath for 1 hour, I am now resorting to a movie.

Thank Heaven for the Aristocats.

Bug Day

Darin did a great job with the bug hunt at the ward party this morning.

Miriam helped hide the bugs
I made a sausage strata, which came out great. It was risky making it for a party since I had never made one before, but really, can you mess up with 1 1/2 lbs of sausage, 1/2 lb of bacon, milk- bread- eggs, and 1 1/2 cups of cheese? All that fat is bound to taste good.

No pictures of the Bub-a-Q because he was asleep which made it a fun party for me. I even got to throw a Frisbee around for a bit. Haven't done that in a loooong time.

For Daddy

Darin, Bub didn't get to give you a kiss goodbye this morning, look what you missed out on! You should have seen the bed...gross. Poor guy.

Today we: walked to target with Jami
went to Costco for breakfast meats (ya know for the bug party tomorrow)
picked rocks, and leaves out of the garden
planted strawberries (thanks mom!!)
blogged
now I am off to cook breakfast meats and then take a shower because you know how I HATE to smell like bacon!!

We miss you, thank you for working so hard.

My terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day

Why did I walk 3 miles with my kids in the pouring rain?

because my car broke down in Smith's parking lot and I didn't have my cell phone.

Why does my son's breath smell like garlic?

We discovered he can also open the Vaseline jar, and the wipes dispenser.

Okay, the title of this post is an exaggeration...it wasn't THAT bad. Just one of those ARGH days when nothing really goes your way. The worst part was that Darin had a bad day as well. ARGH! get your own bad day. Who is suppose to make me feel better? Especially if I am now worried about his bad day??

To end on a good note. G'ma C gave Miriam some money to go buy a book. So, last Tuesday we had a very fun afternoon book purusing and shopping. Miriam even treated me to lemon aid afterwards. Then my parents came for a visit and took Miriam to do errands with them (hence the earth day pants getting done). She came back with strawberry plants and "light up sketchers that are the fastest shoes a little girl could get!". She is soooo excited about these shoes! Yesterday at 9:30 am Miriam went to ask her friend Fin if she wanted to go out for a run.

Also, we watched Juno last night. I really enjoyed it but it made me kind of sad.

**Edited to add that I forgot another part of my horrible day! Byron BIT me while nursing! He drew blood! Luckily I was sitting on the floor because my reaction was to push him away. He was shoved off my lap and rolled onto the floor screaming. How could I forget that important detail?

Earth Day 2008

We started our sprouts 4 days ago so they were ready to eat on Earth Day!

Day 1 seeds soak for 8 hours, we used a mix of different seeds to sprout.

Day 2

Day 3

Day 4 -we ate them! They have a beanish, nutty, weedy taste. I read that bean sprouts are good to have in food storage, because if something happened and it was difficult to get fresh veggies, this would be a fast easy way to grow some.

Next time we do some sproutin' I am going to get Miriam a little notebook to draw the various stages (this idea is from The Creative Family)

First we took our recycling in ( I can't believe my city does not have recycling pick up). Then we went on a garbage collecting walk that ended at what must be one of the cleanest parks in the city. We had a hard time finding trash to collect! But we had fun searching.

Miriam holding her little trash bag

Byron helped by throwing wood chips on his head

Trash Art!

My own personal Earth Day project was to make "Use em' up capris"

These are last years jeans, which were a hand me down to Miriam from a neighbor. Because they have an elastic waist band they still fit, but are now floods.

I cut them off to capri length, hand sewed (no sewing machine) on some ric rack from my Grandma's collection, and then made these ric rack flowers I saw in the latest Martha Stewart Weddings magazine. I don't actually have the magazine, I just flipped through it yesterday at the grocery store, and then remembered them when I saw the ric rack so I may have made them wrong. I couldn't find them on the web site.
I'll have Miriam model the finished project when they become a finished project.

The best part of Earth Day had nothing to do with Mother Earth. My parents came up for a visit! I will report on that tomorrow...I am tired, and so full from eating Paradise Cafe Chocolate Chip cookies I must veg.

My Magnum Opus

Miriam and I finished Charlotte's Web on Friday. I never really liked the cartoon as a child, it seemed very long, but I loved this book. The last 2 chapters were so touching, I cried when Charlotte died, and then Miriam cried when all her children were flying away. I didn't cry at that part because I knew a few stayed, but Miriam was so sad for Wilbur she almost made me stop reading. She feels things so deeply. When I read or tell her fairy tales, right at the moment when the prince and princess kiss, or dance, or get married or whatever, she makes this little excited squeaking sound and then closes her eyes tight and smiles. When we watched the movie today (the real people version with Dakota Fanning) she kept reassuring herself and Darin that everything would be okay. Yes, Charlotte was dieing, yes the kids were flying away but soon a little spider would say "sal-u-ashions!" and everything would be fine.

I love the part when Charlotte calls her egg sack her magnum opus. I told Miriam she and Byron are my magnum opus in progress (more correctly magna opera, in the plural form). With the exception of my marriage, I have never spent so much time, energy, effort, or worried as much about anything else in my entire life. Viewing motherhood as "my great work" has given me an energy boost in my parenting efforts. I wrote our names and the date we finished in the back of the book, I can't wait to re-read it with Byron. I am sure by the time he would enjoy hearing the story I will be over due for another parenting boost.

I am on a roll!

My parent's gave all us kids pictures of our grandparents for Christmas of 2005, I believe it was. As of 2 days ago they are on the wall!!! Hooray for me, another project complete!

I have some good lookin' genes running around in my body I must say, my lucky kids!

This project is new, I decided to put our bedroom set mirror on the wall in the living room. I can't seem to find a mirror the size I want for the price I am willing to pay, so this arrangment will do for now. It's currently leaning against the couch in the living room. Lets hope this project doesn't take me 3 years to finish, but I am not making any promises.

Miriam wasn't actin' so sassy after the water color paint made her face sting....I told her it wasn't a good idea. That's parenting with love and logic for ya;)

Last Week Catch Up!

Bub's nose continues to run, colds mingled with new teeth, his nose hasn't stopped running since February! I never thought I would have a child with crusty snot under their nose. Words eaten, I am humbled, I just feel lucky when it is dry and crusty rather than running.

Ali had a magical 5 year birthday party at the Primrose Retreat. Lots of dress-ups, a runway, tea party on real china, cupcakes with pink frosting and they even made glitter lip gloss. These pictures were taken by Jack and Jill Photography, thanks Suzy!

Miriam and I have been baking lots of bran muffins. Another friend had a baby and we also needed to send some to Washington!

This picture looks so much like Aunt Lisa to me.

I FINALLY hung the silhouettes I made. It has been 2 years since I started the whole process, it's unbelievably sad how long it takes me to complete projects. Now that the weather is warmer (well...not today it's raining) I am determined to pick up the pace!

WINNER!!

Erin will be the recipient of my FAMOUS bran muffins, she is so dang lucky (although I am not sure how well baked goods travel). She correctly decoded Miriam's lyrics to Zombie by the Cranberries (sorry Spence I know you wanted those muffins). It's no wonder she is good at little kid lingo because she and Garreth have 4 darling kiddos of their own.

Although I don't know Erin and Garreth as well as I would like (we only lived by each other for a short while a few years ago) I can tell you, they are just one of those very cool, very fun active families that you want to be friends with. Garreth is from Ireland, and because of him and his brother Dave (and the PBS cartoon JAKERS!), I have this believe that every Irish person must be hysterical. Although, now that I think about it I don't know how funny Bono is and Zombie is quite a sad song, a REALLY sad song (I didn't ever You Tube it for Miriam, it's waaaay too intense). Anyway Congratulations Erin.....full fiber goodness is coming your way.

A Contest

Miriam wanted me to You Tube her new favorite song, but since I didn't know she had a favorite song she had to sing it to me. Homemade bran muffins (hee hee see past posts) to the person who can correctly decode what this song is:

"Zombay Zombay........it's not my family it's not my family.........with their guns and their bums....Zombay Zombay"

*Sarah, you are disqualified since she fell in love with this song in your car

Happy Birthday Big Brother...and other things

My big brother celebrated a birthday last week

I can't believe he cooked on his own birthday, but I am so glad he did because I haven't had fish that good in a loooong time. By the way there was also STEAK and SALMON on the menu, he is pretty amazing. Bub loved the fish too but Miriam prefers

humongous pink icing flowers! Miriam heaven = dress ups, little kids left alone to play in the basement, and pink cake

We fed Stumbelina

made a mouse house

and tons of memories with the cousins!
I love going home.

Fool's Day!

Bub is already feeding himself!

April Fools

and now for some other April Foolery......

We made "shamburgers" and "grilled cheese" to fool Darin. Both recipes are from Family Fun.

and now an April Fools recipe.....
This is actually a real bran muffin recipe that I like to make for friends after they have babies, it's a great 4:00 am treat while feeding a baby. I asked my mom for the recipe, and she had my sister Sarah email it to me. The email made me laugh so hard I kept in my recipe holder, so when I took it out to make a friend some muffins (Hey Fiona) I thought I would share the recipe and the humor (warning: if you are easily offended don't read further).

From: blah blah @hotmail.com
Sent: Wednesday April 5, 2006
To: blah blah @ hotmail.com
Subject: Super Pooper Bran Muffins!

Dear Elisa,
Here is the recipe for Fat Free, Sugar Free, Fun Free, Taste Free Bran Muffins:

4 oz. pitted prunes 4 egg whites (or 2 whole eggs if you enjoy fat)
1 C water 1 C honey
3 C bran cereal 2 1/2 C flour
2 C non-fat buttermilk 2 1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp salt

Steam prunes in the cup of water until soft. Puree prunes and water in blender or food processor. Add bran cereal and buttermilk together and let sit until mushy. In a large mixing bowl, stir together the prunes puree and all remaining ingredients. Spray muffin pans with cooking spray. Foll 2/3 full. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes. Stay near bathroom for at least 3 hours after eating bran muffin, increase time by 1 additional hour for each muffin consumed. Makes 24 large muffins, batter may be stored in refrigerator for 2 weeks.

Have loads of fun!!

They seriously are good bran muffins, don't be afraid of the email. Hope everyone had a wonderful April 1st!!