Halloween

 The kids enjoyed dressing up this year!  We went to our church’s event complete with games, a hay ride, and a bonfire (we even got to roast marshmallows and make s’mores!).  And of course, the kids had fun carving pumpkins with their Daddy.

I’m Back!

Whenever I move, it takes me a l-o-o-o-ng time to develop new systems.  I’m finally getting around to downloading photos on my computer for the first time since January. 

So here are a few things we’ve been up to lately.

I’ve recently discovered some kind of aversion to dairy in my body, so rather than make my cookies with butter, I’ve been making them with oil.  And, to try to get even more nutrients in them, rather than just adding oats, I’ve added: oats, oat bran, millet & kamut.  Recipe below.

Elise, who rarely finishes any dessert, scarfed down two of these.

 

Thomas and Aidan stopped at 4 each, but only because they had to!

 

It was a beautiful fall sunny day so we had to head to the park. We missed fall all together being in AZ last year, and we're thoroughly enjoying the beauty of a Northwest fall (especially a sunny one like we've been getting!).

 

Aidan found a tiny snail that was his pet until we lost him in Safeway later in the day.

 

Oatmeal Cookies

2 cups whole wheat pastry flour (its much tastier and has higher nutrients if you grind your own!)
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp salt

2/3 cup butter or oil (I use canola)
3/4 cup maple syrup and/or honey (I experiment with different combinations.  All maple syrup is my favorite but more expensive so I usually do 1/2 of each.)
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
2 cups oats (I tripled this batch and put 2 cups oats, 2 cups oat bran, 1 cup millet and 1 cup kamut)
1-2 cups of nuts, raisins, and/or chocolate chips
 
Cream fat and sweetner. Add eggs & vanilla & mix. Sift dry ingredients – 
add to liquid mixture. Add oats, raisins, nuts, and/or chocolate chips.
 
Cook 8-12 minutes, 350 F

My Free Entertainment

As I took Elise out of her booster seat from lunch, Elise inspected my hand and said,  “Mommy, you is wrinkled!”

___________________________

Aidan:  “Mom, what’s for dinner tonight?”

Mommy: “Meatballs and noodles.”

Aidan:  “Mom, is it Saturday?”

Mommy:  “No, its Wednesday.”

Aidan:  “I like to eat steak on Wednesdays, Saturdays, and Sundays.  So can we have steak tonight instead?”

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Thanks to some inspiration from my friend Karissa , I decided to make New Year’s Eve festive and fun for us all, rather than keeping on packin’ (or feeling lonely, even worse!).

We made our own party hats, noise-makers, ate pizza and fun dessert, had a sparkling cider toast (although Martinellis was ditched for water by my kids!), and danced around until we were exhausted.  The kids had a wonderful time and I had so much fun I forgot all the details of life!  We just laughed and laughed until we all crashed well before midnight.

Thanksgiving

My parents flew down for Thanksgiving.  It was so fun to hang out with them for the weekend!  A big bonus was that I got to have my Mom’s famous stuffing for dinner, and I didn’t even have to try to make it!

Like Mother Like Daughter! We accidentally matched on Thanksgiving, although we did plan to paint our toenails the same shade of purple.

 

 

We had so much fun celebrating Elise’s birthday.  Tom’s Mom came for the weekend and the kids had a lot of fun hanging out with her.  We went to Red Robin for her birthday dinner and had some friends over the next day for a little kiddie “pool party”.  I was excited we could actually have an outdoor party! 

 

 

 

 

Happy Birthday, my sweet & beautiful 2 year-old girl!

 

Elise claps after everyone sings for her.

Out to lunch and shopping with Grammar!

Our First Scorpion

Ahhhhhh!  I have been training the children for 8 months, “If you see a scorpion, run to me as fast as you can and tell me.  If your sister is by it, drag her away.” 

No problem.  The kids were playing outside this morning while I was watering the plants.  Aidan had unbeknownst to me gone into the garage to get his bike.  He came rushing outside and with a very scared cry said, “There’s a scorpion!”  I was on the phone with Tom so I hung up quickly and asked Aidan to show me where it was.  He was not budging.  I asked him how big it was, and held out my fingers to show it was probably 2 inches long.  He said, “No, Mom, its a MONSTER scorpion!”  I then insisted he show me where it was so that I could kill it.  I got him into the house but he was not going into the garage.  He said, “Open the door, Mom – you’ll see it!”  I thought, oh brother, it’s going to take me forever to find.

Uh, wrong.  I opened the door, and I saw it.  I had no idea scorpions came this big.  I wanted to take a photo of it but was too scared that it would get away or get a kid while I was gone.  It was freaky.  It was about the size of a large grapefruit.  It was up high on its legs scurrying around.  Fortunately I had grabbed a big stick and I smashed it as fast as I could.  I turned around to find the kids.  Elise had gone outside.  The boys had locked themselves upstairs in my room.  Thomas had taken one look at the thing and wasn’t taken any chances.

I then praised Aidan for following our house scorpion rules.  He knew exactly what it was when he saw it.  He does have a pretend scorpion, after all.  And it was so creepy looking his instinct made him run anyway.  It turns out there are many varieties and sizes of scorpions.  I think the biggest kind was in our garage.

This isn't even as creepy as the one in our garage. It was standing up on its legs and was huge.

I’m now wearing shoes which is rare in our home.  Every time something touches me I check to see what it is.  Please, come visit!  I’ll try to have them all out of the house for your stay.  🙂

Life

It’s been a while since I posted anything.  I haven’t made it a priority, partly due to our trip to Seattle this summer and preparing to homeschool, and wondering if anybody really wants to read this anyway.  However, I love reading others’ blogs and would love to have a better record of our goings on, so here I go!

Aunt Barbie from the Canary Islands of Spain is currently visiting us.  I am enjoying a continual feast for new ideas with our preschoolers.  Barbie ran a Montessori preschool for 30 plus years.  She is a loving and delightful person and as my husband told her when he picked her up from the airport (while I was at home mopping the floors!), “Barbie, we couldn’t pay you for what you are about to do (for us)!”  I hope to share more of her ideas and some photos later.

Today, when I opened up my Bible, these words jumped out at me and my thoughts could not be quieted, no matter how out of context they are:

“…and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry…”  (No problem, got that covered, that’s most of what I do all day long.)

“…and satisfy the needs of the oppressed…” (Got that covered too, I spend most of the rest of my time rescuing one child from another and teaching them how to be kind.)

“…then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday.  The Lord will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame.  You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail.”  Isaiah 58:10-11

Wow, I get all that just from feeding and refereeing my children?!  I know, I know, it isn’t exactly what the passage is speaking of, but on a day when the work and squabbles seem endless, this gave me a good laugh at myself and encouragement from God that my children are worth every bit of effort.

Father’s Day

We went to the Phoenix Zoo today to celebrate the Daddy in our family.  It was 104 degrees – definitely the hottest Father’s Day we’ve ever experienced, although we were told by someone at the zoo today that it has been unseasonably cool this month.  The heat pretty much exhausted us for the rest of the day (and the day after actually!) so we’re not thinking too much about how cool it was!  I’m thankful for the awesome father Tom is to our children, and we are both thankful for our own fathers who have invested so much into our lives.  At least we got to make phone calls to our Dads since we couldn’t see them in person!

Thomas took this one! It hit me today that we have a child old enough to take pictures.

 

Half the fun of the zoo is all the places to climb and run.

 

Elise likes to do everything like her brothers!

 

This was our first trip to the zoo where Elise spent most of the time out of the stroller running to each exhibit. When I set her free she had such an excitement about her to be a big kid like her brothers! It was delightful to watch. I think we just entered a "little-easier" phase, as Tom and I found that we didn't have to worry as much about losing any of the kids.

 

Daddy put the boys on the camel for a ride.

 

 

The splash pad and cave with water slides was another highlight.

 

 

We’re still here!

It’s been pretty busy lately.  Tom’s been working a lot and we did vacation bible school at our church every day this week.  Here are a few random photos from the last month.

We found a dentist the kids love! Great care, balloons, and a rainforest lobby with a big screen TV. It was actually fun to go.

Walking home from the pool.

In the backyard. Do you get the feeling it is hot & sunny here a lot? Tom and I laugh that when it gets down to 90 we think its cool. Clearly, this is not Seattle!!