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...

The Garden...

Bubba and I couldn't really be called gardeners. Quite frankly, if it were completely up to Bubba, we'd have grass right up to the front door...he'd mow it once a week and not look at it again until the next time it needed to be mowed. I'm a wish-I-was-a gardener. I LOVE to read about them...visit them...look at them...PLANT them...but then I just sorta want them to grow and leave me alone and look pretty when I want to look at them.

But I WANT to be one. I WANT to have one. I sorta have this little dream in my head that we could use a garden to be more self-sufficient one day. To those of you who know Bubba and his aversion to things that are now growing or ever have been grown in or near the ground...STOP that giggling...this is MY fantasy...and you never know, we COULD save money growing green beens, snow peas and lettuce...My fantasy really DOESN'T include Bubba EVER eating eggplant, squash, beets or any type of green except iceberg, I promise. But I digress.

Anyway, for the last two years I've had a pretty good (if I do say so myself) little garden. Last year there was a little herb garden in the back under tree house part of the swing set and we had one 4' x 4' other little square foot garden of...well, can you guess??? That's right, green beans.

Also for the last about 5 years Bubba and I have been saving up for some outside stuff for the house...we wanted planter beds in the front...we still want a patio cover on the back and Bubba wants the sun-shade screens and I want honest to goodness outside funiture...heaven SAVE me from the sling back beach chairs that I keep buying.

This year in spring, my dear sweet Bubba, the one who would rather MOW than bother, purchased for my pure joy, stone planter beds for the front of the house. They weren't much to look at in the beginning...I did take pictures of the yard all covered with stone and dust but I can't find it right now.

I REALLY should have taken these pictures about 2 weeks ago when the Cosmos weren't all gray and spent...still look at my glorious garden...



Here are some more pictures of those cosmos...every single one of them grown from cast off flower heads...Not thinking too clearly, I'd been dead-heading directly into the garden. It rained the entire time we were in Colorado seeing the new baby and when we got back over 40 new cosmos plants had grown. I only saved about 20 of them and of that 20 we lost a few to replanting...but MAN do they bloom. It's funny because the little potted plants that they came from really only had 2 or 3 flowers at a time. These plants from seed went CRAZY. At the height of their bloom, a couple weeks ago, I counted 13 on just ONE plant...Now they are a bit spent...we haven't been dead-heading and it's been dipping into the 40s at night, so the leaves have lost their light green...but they are still so pretty...



The extra blooms on flowers from seed seem to be a running theme in my garden this year because these two marigolds ALSO came from seeds. I swiped (with permission) a couple of dead flowers off my neighbor's marigolds (again, little piddly things) and look what they have wrought. I've personally never seen such a bushy marigold with so many blooms as this first one...the second one is smaller...we transplanted it when we transplanted the cosmos and it had a harder go of it...but it still is bigger again by half of the parent plants...



I also discovered that natural remedies work in the garden, too. When I got my planters I KNEW I wanted to grow roses...and not those overblown knock-out roses that everyone grows. Nope, I wanted real and true, cut-em-at-a-five-leaflet roses...more tea roses than hybrids, but if they had the right shape and smell I wasn't terribly picky. The lady at Lowes practically CALLED me a fool and told me I'd better stock up on anti-fungals because once the summer hit I was going to have to dose them every week or so for black spot. "Hmmmm," said my California-city-girl self, "We shall see."

Well Ms. Lowes-lady was not entirely wrong. We did get black spot...and on my favorite peachy rose, too. But it didn't happen until the end of September. When I saw the black spot, I cut that sucker right down to the ground. I'd already been using Peppermint Castile soap and water mixed in a spray bottle for aphids...that works great. I didn't have any commercial anti-fungals but I did have Oil of Oregano in the house (great anti-fungal and all around big dog sickness buster in natural healthcare) so I put a dropperful into the half-full bottle of Soap/Water mix and sprayed everything down really well. And then I kept checking. I'd noticed a couple leaves that were infected on two of the other roses and had sprayed them too, but hadn't cut everything off of them.

Anyway, here is the original rose. It is working beautifully on re-growth, no black spot to be seen...and there isn't any on any of the other roses anymore...no aphids either...I love it when I manage to do something that works...



And here are just some random shots around the garden...be warned...you might see a kid or two..(or ehem, three, if you are counting)



Anyway...so hmmm...guess I at least LOOK like a gardener this year...as long as you don't look at what became of LAST year's gardens...



Just SAD...

See ya around...

TOG Weeks 8 & 9 Review...FINALLY

Well it took nine days JUST to do the review. I KNEW we didn't cover it the first time well enough. We'd been a little scattered both the week that we did 8 and the week that we did 9. I found MYSELF not remembering stuff. So anyway...the board REALLY helped.

For those of you NOT doing TOG, the curriculum has list upon list to check off already IN it. So I don't want you to think this is a failing of Tapestry itself. It's just me.

Those that know me, know that I'm something of a recovering clutter bug. I tend to strew things about me. I read, a few years ago, that this was a very common personality type and that it was not due to laziness, but more to the visual learning style. Apparently some people need to be able to SEE their stuff to find it.

There are SEVERAL major cracks in that theory for me. The first being that while I do tend to strew stuff around while I'm in the midst of a project and that helps me find stuff...I have always had a hard time putting stuff back, which makes it IMPOSSIBLE to find stuff LATER. Plus, in all other things I'm pretty kinesthetic and have to TOUCH things to learn them. Still I AM a Reader (with a capital "R") and get a lot from that medium, but I don't remember much from T.V. so I'm not sure how that falls on the visual spectrum...Bubba is visual and he can remember all kinds of stuff from T.V... Beanie is visual and as long as I don't MOVE my stuff, if she has seen the pile she can find stuff in it. All that said, if this is a valid reason for me to be completely flighty, I'll take it and use it to my advantage wherever possible.

WHAT is my point? Oh, yeah. Those check lists don't help me most of the time because they are tucked away NEATLY inside my big binder, so I forget to check them off. The board fixed all that. It was an ever present reminder of what I still wanted to accomplish. Excellent teaching tool, white boards...who knew? (Hush up, every one of you!)

So here is the white board all checked off...a couple got crossed out because, while we did go over them, week 10 does a better job, so they'll be there again...



And here is Beanie, standing in front of the (nasty-new-laminated-glarey) map where she found and marked the 59 items that were on the board. Note the Yangtze River...Note that the (nasty-new-laminated-glarey) map does not have this MAJOR landmark on it, anywhere that I can find...so *I* drew it after both Bean and I looked for what seemed like FOREVER. Note, I am not a cartographer, nor do I play one on television...I was merely a crabby mom with a dry erase marker...so, NO, it's probably not accurate...



Oh, one other thing. This picture is to the Grandmother of my children...
Oh Mommy-Dear...."QUACK"



See ya around...