Time out, indeed...

What is that?

I'm pretty sure I told her to sit on the couch. I'm pretty sure she was being a tad irritating and I told her to chill out by herself. I'm pretty sure she was crying just a second ago. I THOUGHT she was terribly sad that she had misbehaved and caused her mother a frowning brow.









This is not what I had in mind. I'm sure that I meant she was to be solemn...quiet....still. She was SUPPOSED to be THINKING about what she had done and coming to some sort of repentance. Those feet are not solemn. Nor do they look repentant in the least.








I believe those unrepentant feet are dancing.




Sigh...sometimes the cuteness just sneaks up on me.

See ya around...

Not Naan...but not bad...

Last night I was on an indian food kick. I'd found a recipe for Butter Chicken that resembled my favorite Indian Restaurant's Chicken Makani...and I found a recipe for Naan (with an option for Garlic Naan).

Ooooooo...I was SO excited.

And then reality hit.

The Butter Chicken didn't suck. I wouldn't throw it BACK atcha. I wouldn't grab a jar of pickle relish to eat with a spoon INSTEAD. That's really all I can say about it. Oh, I guess ONE other thing...my Indian restaurant REALLY has no cause for fear.

But the Naan. Well, for some reason I was thinking it was a quick bread...so I didn't start it until 5:00pm. As a yeast bread it was impossible to finish by dinner time. I did MAKE it to a degree...but it started getting late. You know, I had to cook the Butter Chicken, make the rice, clean the kitchen, goof off with girlies...throw things at Bubba. ANYWAY...so I got as far as punching down the dough...making it into golf ball sized rounds that I put on a cookie sheet and covered with a tea towel and stuck in my cool oven.

In almost clarvoiant fashion, I also stuck a pink sticky note on the oven door (just in case I forgot to mess with it) to remind myself not to just crank up the broiler before checking that I'd removed the stuff. I am very wise to my own idiosyncracies...and frankly it only takes one tea towel flambe, one time, 22 years ago to remind this old girl how terribly forgetful she is. But I digress.

As is my common practice, I took the girls upstairs and completely forgot there was a lower floor to my house for the rest of the night.

I got up this morning and noticed that, indeed, I'd forgotten the Naan. Well, hmmm, they looked a little overblown...but not much worse for the wear. I pulled them out of the oven, pre-heated it to 350 F, extricated my tea towel from the couple of pieces that had grown sticky overnight. When the temperature indicator beeped, I popped them in the oven as-is and baked them for about 15 minutes...I know it was longer than 10 because I'd set the timer...but beyond that I'm not sure.

Anyway, they CERTAINLY stuck to my cookie sheet...that will be a soak job for sure...but I scraped the top part off and put a little butter and agave nectar on it and it was definately yummy.

Real Naan is usually a flat bread, you do the second rise, flatten it and cook it on the grill (or so saith my recipe)...but this was crunchy on the out side, puffy and soft on the inside...sort of like an english muffin but not quite so chewy...yummmy!

So here is what my Not Naan, looked like...


and here is a link to the recipe. I think I'm going to try it as ACTUAL Naan next time...but I also am TOTALLY going to try it as more of a biscuit again...um, adding in the greasing of the cookie sheet, of course.

See ya around...

Breaking my own rules of anonymity...

But for a very good reason.

This post is going to all the mommas out there that have a fussy writer.

Bean was a miracle child. She could write her name when she was two and a half. She had a harder time reading...but writing she had down cold.

Bear is a miracle child in many MANY ways...but writing is not one of them. Well, maybe she is...you decide. She doesn't LIKE handwriting. As a matter of fact while TEACHING her to write I've discovered that the child CAN NOT draw a counter-clockwise circle to save her life. (to those of you not teaching children, this is a vital skill for all ENGLISH writing...try to write a lower case a, c, d, g, o, q in either manuscript or cursive and you'll see what I mean.)

And she squawks about it..."I HATE handwriting!" "I don't WANT to do handwriting"...blah blah blah.

Check this out...this child can write...obviously when SHE wants to, but still, the child can write and I certainly didn't teach her this...All I do is spell stuff "one at a time"...



I've actually known this about her for about a year. I never really taught her numbers either I just wrote them on the top of the page for her...and all of a sudden she could write them...

This is August 2007...


This is September 2007...


This is June 2008...


And November 2008...


So even a child who can not write in lessons, might actually be able to write. Even a child who fights every opportunity in a certain subject, might still go on to learn said subject in spite of herself. Bottom line...even though I have a hard time TEACHING her to write...she's learning to write. Praise the Lord.

See ya around...

When Momma is SICK, ain't NOBODY happy!!

I'm sick. It started Wednesday night...turned into a good old fashioned chicken soup cold...and the stupid thing won't leave. So ANYWAY, I've not been feeling up to par this week and it TOTALLY shows in the pictures of my children. It's the weirdest thing too. You'd think they'd be happy that mom was letting them run nutty...watch t.v. ... eat more junk than usual. But NOT really... Here they are making pizza pretty much by themselves on Friday (day 2 of me being REALLY tired)...


Not a smile. I'd go so far as to say they were all rather stoic. What's with that...they got to make PIZZA for crying out loud. I swear to you, I was not shouting, "Ha SLAVES, get that cheese grated" or anything of the sort. It's possible I threated someone with gypsy selling if they didn't hurry...but it's a little hazy...still...they aren't even smiling with the pepperoni flinging.

And then there is THIS portion. We were studying Michaelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci...so they made frescos...FRESCOS. Painting on plaster...what could be better. Terrible messy stuff...and then PAINT...I hate to paint nearish to meal time and this was AS I was making dinner...They are PAINTING just when they want to on a really cool surface...not one little crack in those faces....


Here are Bean and Monkey Face staying out of the way while Bear works on Math...listening to wonderful things of their own choosing on Bean's MP3 player...coloring, as per THEIR request...No Joy...(actually, after looking at the picture, Bean is doing spelling...but still)...


Well, here is a LITTLE joy...Monkey Face was VERY happy with her donkey and had to show her sisters. But doesn't that second one look like Bear is telling her, "Chin up baby-sister, as soon as those gypsies get here, we'll sell HER."


So just in case you are wondering if your feelings alter your home...here are some good examples of how they do. I'm a little sad that my kids weren't full of joy this week...stupid cold. Colds also APPARENTLY cause all photos to be grainy...ALL OF THEM.

However, perhaps things are looking up...this was yesterday...at the very least I now have a very clean spot on the floor...


See ya around...

This, That and Medieval Torture Devices....

Well we put our Medieval unit to bed about 2 weeks ago...and since then...hmmmmm...what have I been doing???

I don't know. Nothing. Been Busy.

Actually none of those are EXACTLY true...but we haven't been doing anything interesting really...at least not photo worthy.

Let's see...okay there was Voting Day. Bubba stayed home so that I could go vote. I never manage to vote early...NEVER. Bubba usually does. I always want to, but then my flighty nature takes over and there is always something ELSE to do, until it's TIME TO VOTE. So anyway, during the primaries our voting place was VERY crowded. I didn't get there until about 6:45 pm after Bubba got home from work, and I was there until after 9 waiting in line. So I hadn't wanted that to happen again, so Bubba stayed with the girls and I went a-voting about 10 in the morning. There were EXACTLY 7 voters in the room. Pffffffft, I coulda taken the girls. Oh well, I took it as a blessing. I had Bubba all to myself all day, he had a day off AND I'd voted.

The next day was my birthday...WEEEE HAAAAW! Yes, indeed I'm another year older since you saw me last. But ANYWAY, I somehow managed to schedule a dentist appointment for both Bean and me ON my birthday. I really MUST be getting old. What kind of a person SCHEDULES a dentist appointment ON their birthday. The day AFTER, maybe, but ON?

My oral hygienist did remind me that at the very least I get to start my new year with very clean teeth. I was thankful for the sentiment, but held no guilt when later in the day I slathered those clean teeth with a Caramel Pecan Fudge Sundae from Braum's.

That sundae was only a possibility because Bear's soccer team had a little end of season celebration. It was such fun. We all went to Braum's and ate junk and visited. I had made a DVD for them all that had a simple slide show of pictures set to "Trashin' the Camp" from Disney's Tarzan...and one of the other parents had taken our team picture and gave those out. It was a pretty fun birthday all around.

I've often missed out on BIG birthday fun because I'm usually the one to make the fun...AND all of the rest of the family's birthdays are OVER by mid-June and I'm the sole end of the year standout. But luckily for me, the kid's sport's end of season parties have coincided with my birthday for the last few years, so I usually end up with an actual PARTY...I'm fairly impressed with my finagling.

So anyway...that's what I've been doing...schoolin' kids, eatin' sundaes, makin' videos, cleanin' various elements of my house, diggin' OUT the garden (so sad)...

So I don't know. Nothing. Been Busy.

But I can't leave you with NOTHING. These pictures were taken in October at a little friend's birthday party. It was a dress up party and we had just purchased our costumes for the end of our Medieval unit (there will be MORE pictures of those later). The party was sort of a spa day for the little girls (9 and under), the big sisters (14 and 12) pretty much ran the show, doing make-up, painting nails...oh it was just fun...we moms threw in to help with foot massages...




We DID learn that those toe separators that come in the little spa kits are not really MEANT for 5 year olds, unless you are into torture devices...

Look at her face....


Now look at her poor little toes...


That's what I call MEDIEVAL!!!

See ya around...