Toasted couplers

Speaking of the washer breaking... An appliance repairman was supposed to come by Friday, but he never showed up. I started snooping around online because I was suspecting that it was a broken belt not yet knowing that our washer isn't belt driven, but rather a direct drive washer and stumbled upon the Samurai Appliance Repair Man's website. What an AWESOME!!! resource, and funny... You should go check it out, if only for the amusement factor. It's hilarious reading and it's helpful too. By reading on his site, I determined that the drive coupler on my washer was probably bad and upon finally getting the washer apart (DH doing most of the work me consulting the fixitnow.com website and telling him what to do next), found that the Samurai and I were quite right, the thing was toast. Since I had a batch of once washed, rinsed and mostly spun out diapers sitting in the washer, I was really hoping that we'd be able to get a new drive coupler today, but being that we got the washer at Sears and being that all the repair places are closed on Sunday, I'll just have to wait till tomorrow. In the meantime, this is the solution we came up with to save the dipes (I'm giving thanks for a beautiful, sunny day):

And this is only 1/2 my stash! Someday I hope to get a clothes line above the edge of the flower bed/herb garden.

A boatload of ouch

A week ago Tuesday, I was running in the house, chasing Geo when I slipped on the family room carpet, my feet flew out from under me and I landed "plop" right on my tail. OOOhhh, I was in agony. I rolled over in fetal position and just moaned and groaned for awhile till I decided that I could still feel my toes, didn't think my hip or pelvis was broken... and decided that I should try to stand. I made it to a standing position and hobbled around for awhile, but didn't feel like I could do much standing, walking or sitting. I called DH and told him I didn't think I'd be able to make lunch, but after awhile I found that I could make lunch, but it just wasn't much fun. I sat sideways on pillows a lot that first day, gradually over the next few days things started to get a little better. But I keep having setbacks, like when, last week on Thursday, the washer started making terrible noises when I was spinning out, I jumped up to turn it off; another time was when I was running into the living room to rescue Eli who was being rolled up like a burrito in a comforter by Geo and crying for help. I'm wondering how long it's going to take to heal up completely. I really don't think that the tail bone is broken, more like a whiplash to my tail bone area or strained and pulled ligaments or muscles... who knows, but I know I can now sit and stand, no problem, but when I have to bend down or pick something (or someone) up, I have to go really slowly and gingerly or it'll start hurting again.

Molar magoo

I was beginning to wonder why the last few nights haven't been especially restful when I discovered that Eli is trying to sprout a couple of molars. Poor guy, that can't feel good. Another thing that doesn't help is that he hates and I mean hates to get his diaper changed, especially in the middle of the night. It's a chore the 3-4 times I change his diaper. That's why I'm so very excited that my order of Haute Pockets are coming in the mail, probably next week sometime. I think I'll be able to stuff them well and because of the stay-dry liner, maybe I won't have to change his diapers so often during the night saving us all some sanity.

Eli is taking more and more steps, standing more, crawling like a spider (up on hands and toes, I call him a little spider monkey, lol), walking with a walker or pushing a small plastic chair across the floor... It won't be long before he's walking everywhere. It's started to be a problem with him getting into my kitchen cabinets so I'm improvising (till I can get some latches) with some heavy duty rubber bands which he can't get off the handles, it's working so far.

He has started playing with shapes sorters and actually gets them in sometimes by himself, likes to hit his leapfrog drum, loves things with bright lights (like cell phones, I also call him a bug because he's attracted to light), and is very playful. He's very observant and tries to copy things he sees like holding the phone up to his ear or brushing his hair or blowing on tubes like they are a trumpet.

My current favorite pasta sauce

I found this recipe for "Nice Spinach Spaghetti Sauce" a few weeks ago and tried it as I had some fresh tomatoes & parsley and even though I didn't have fresh basil, it was still mighty tasty! It's very fresh tasting, like nothing I'd ever had till then, not the same old same old pasta sauce.

This is how I made it:

2 tsp. minced garlic (from a jar in my fridge)
1 Tbsp. dried basil (I'm sure fresh would be way better)
1 can diced tomatoes
about 1 c. frozen spinach, defrosted
1/4 - 1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley
1/4 cup of olive oil
1-2 fresh roma tomatoes

I wizzed this all up in the blender, then either warm on the stove or lightly heat in the microwave. It turns a slightly yucky color, not nice and red, but the taste more than makes up for it.

Tonight tho I didn't have the jar of tomatoes, but did have some leftover spaghetti sauce and some tomato juice from a can of diced tomatoes, didn't have olive oil so just used vegetable oil and didn't have any fresh roma tomatoes, but it still turned out pretty good, had it with homemade gnocchi; not too shabby.

Clap your hands all ye people

Little Eli is wowing us every day. Today he took 3 steps before plopping to the ground. Then during supper (lentil stew for him) he started signing the word "more" (and I think he said "more," but it sounded more like "ma"). At first he was signing something closer to the word "food" or "eat," bringing his hand up to his mouth, then he started (on his own), bringing his hands together. Then after supper, DH called me into the family room to show me that Eli was clapping his hands for the first time ever. I just get such joy in seeing my babies blossom into little, intelligent beings. I stand in awe of God's creative power in such diminutive creatures.

Post Script... A little later when I was helping Gigi with her bath, DH called my attention to our little spider baby; he was "crawling" down the hall on his hands and feet, a very funny sight indeed. Where was my camera when I needed it? I can just hope he'll do it again for me so I can catch him in the act.

Tater Tot Skillet Dinner

Saute (salt the onion and sweat it over low heat) 1/2 onion, diced

Add:
Diced carrots (2) & celery (2 stalks)

Cook till soft (I added some water & turned up the heat)

Add (cook till soft):
Zucchini or yellow squash, diced (1) -or-
Frozen asparagus, cut up in small pieces
Frozen peas (1-2 c.)

Add:
2 c. tater tots
Gravy

Cook till mixed & thicker. Tater tots will fall apart and resemble rice (test to make sure they are completely cooked).


Gravy:

1 can cream of mushroom soup (I use Amy's organic brand or make my own)
1/4 c. mayonnaise
1 tsp. parsley flakes
1/2 tsp. veg. broth powder
1 can Worthington Diced-Chick (or diced chicken with 1/4 c. gravy)

Cook together in a pan, whisk till well mixed.

Comp 001

My just turned 6 year old just wrote this today, his first attempt at writing, I thought it was cute, had to share:

The cat was happy
and said let's go to
play out side and
had lots of fun.

I've kicked the can

Canned soup that is. Canned soups are hotbeds of MSG and related substances so, for the last few years, I just haven't had a need for them. Except that for some reason, I find it hard to replace cream of mushroom soup. I found a natural version at Kroger which is ok, but not dairy free, and just the other day I came across this recipe from vegsource. I'm really so excited to find this, it seems such a simple thing really, but to have a crutch really helps me, so "thanks, Bryanna, you've done it again."

THE UNCANNED CONDENSED MUSHROOM SOUP
(use as a substitute for same)

This recipe is adapted from the book “Whole Foods for the Whole family” (NAL Books), a la Leche league international cookbook, for which I served as an editor. The recipe is a combination of recipes of mine, and 3 other contributors.

THICK WHITE SAUCE BASE:

2 T. Earth Balance or other vegan margarine (I used palm oil)
3 T. flour
1/4 tsp. salt
dash white pepper (I left out)
1 and 1/4 c. non-dairy milk (if you want a really mushroomy sauce, use 1 c. rich soymilk, such as Vitasoy Original, or even a soy non-dairy creamer, plus 1/4 c. liquid from soaking dried mushrooms) (I used the mushroom liquid from a 4 oz. can of sliced mushrooms)

ADDITION:
1 T. minced onion
1/2 c. minced mushrooms (from 4 oz. can)
a little oil or margarine (I sprayed a little spray oil on the onions)

Saute the onion and mushrooms in a little oil or margarine until soft. Set aside. Melt margarine in a small saucepan. Stir in the flour, salt and pepper and cook over medium heat until bubbly. Whisk in the “milk” slowly. Whisk and cook until thick. Stir in the onion and mushrooms.

Gluten Wheat-Meat "Chicken"

I tried a recipe that I found here called Bryanna's New Seitan "Chicken." After reading through several of the recipes, I figured out that when the poster had posted, something happened to the amounts so some of them are a little wacky. After reading thru most of this post as well as thru some of Bryanna's other recipes from vegsource.com and her own website, this is what I came up with and notes of how I did it (based on my ingredients on hand):

2 1/4 c. vital wheat gluten
1/2 c. Minute tapioca
1/2 c. old-fashioned rolled oats
2 Tbsp. "chicken-style" veggie broth powder
2 Tbsp. garlic powder
2 Tbsp. nutritional yeast flakes
1/2 tsp. onion powder

2 1/4 c. cold water
1/4 c. raw cashew nuts
a few dashes of homemade Kitchen Bouquet
3 Tbsp. mushroom sauce (one of Bryanna's recipes from the cycling website I think)
a few asparagus tips, will probably add more next time

Mixed the wet together into the dry in my Bosch Universal mixer and mixed on 2 for 10 minutes, let it rest for an hour, then mixed again for another 10 mintues. Then I took it out, cut into 3 long loglike pieces and boiled in:

1 c. asparagus juice (from canned asparagus)
about 1 c. mushroom sauce
5 c. "chicken"-style broth
7 cloves garlic, chopped
a few dashes of homemade Kitchen Bouquet
3 1/2 Tbsp. nutritional yeast flakes

I cooked the wheat-meat logs in the broth in my slow cooker on high for about 6 or 7 hours till they had swelled up and started to float. I tested them and they were done when they were more meaty and less like edible rubber (not that there is such a thing).

I like it because it kind of reminds me of the consistency of Worthington Chickettes which I used to love, but didn't love all the additives. It slices in deli-slice thickness with ease, and was very delightful in some chicken a la king that I made today. Yum-o. I want to keep trying more recipes, but this one did turn out pretty good. A far cry from the really spongy blobs I used to make that I had the nerve to call gluten steaks.

The only thing I find distressing about this is that I read the other day that slow cooking of protein creates free glutamates (like in MSG) and this is something I try to avoid so I'm not going to go overboard with gluten, but it's nice to have something to fill the "meat" gap when trying to follow non-veggie recipes (and the kids and hubby love it).

Patty, thrifty mom's best friend

My kids just love "Patties day" and my little secret is that it's really "use of as many leftovers as possible in the fridge day." Bwahahaha... But they're really pretty yummy. I usually make sure I have some leftover rice or mashed potatoes and then throw in any leftover casserole-type foods or side dishes or veggies... into the mix, add some salt if needed, bread crumbs, tofu if I have it, an egg or 2, bread them and fry in a Pam sprayed pan. Et voila, bye-bye space hogging leftovers (that no one really usually wants anyway, hello yummy patties. Just another of my dirty little secrets, lol. And in related news, a recently discovered ingredient of pot pie... leftovers.

Bye bye

Eli is learning how to wave, it's so cute. He kind of wiggles his fingers around when he sees us waving to him. I just love the cognitive things that are going on with him. You can just see the wheels turning, the light dawning about things. Like the other day he tried to open a cupboard door which he knew was supposed to open, but didn't because something was in the way. But it didn't stop him from trying and trying to get it to open.

We've started giving him some rice cereal and he LOVES it. Where's that been all his life? Well, nursing was pretty much cutting it, but not anymore, I guess.

His crawling is sometimes morphing into hands and feet walking especially over thresholds (I think because he doesn't want to hurt his feet). I also think that he really does want to be up on his feet, but just doesn't trust himself completely yet. It's kinda cute actually :)

Are you sure it isn't summer already?

My imood thingy says I'm "hot" which I'm pretty sure isn't a mood unless it means that you're hot and bothered or hot under the collar or hot to trot. No, I'm just hot, as in need of some ice water and a fan. Ugh. There's like no air circulation where I'm sitting. And we're only like a week into spring. Thankfully we're getting some weather that's going to be "much cooler," like down to the 70s. Whatever. I wouldn't call that much cooler but it'll do ;)

Baby Steps

Eli is starting to take his first tentative steps. He took one step for DH yesterday a couple of times, then I saw him take one tiny step today. He's still pretty wobbly on his legs, but he's starting to try. He can crawl really fast and is starting to push up with his back legs like he wants to stand, but usually doesn't. But he is letting go of things more and more to just stand there and look at something in his hands (usually).

So bummed!

We went to the local church down the road that we kinda like and after church was over and we finally got ourselves together to leave, we got to the car, Gigi said she needed to go potty. So I took her, leaving DH to get the boys in the car. We got inside and she promptly changed her mind and said she'd go at home. By this time DH was pulling up to the front of the building and we got in and headed home. Later that afternoon DH wondered where his phone was and I said "it's in the diaper bag." Then he got this "oh no!" look on his face. Apparently he had set the bag down while getting Eli buckled in and then went around to get Geo in (or something like that). Suffice it to say, it got left in the parking lot of the church. He went right over hoping that it'd still be there, but it wasn't. We called the pastor's wife and she called the few people who were still there, but they hadn't seen it. Someone else checked to see if anyone had picked it up and left it in the church, but it wasn't there. We called the local police, but they forward their calls on the weekend so I'll try again tomorrow. Along with his phone was my Palm Pilot (so bummed), my favorite sling, the kids' mini magna doodle things, some diapers & wipes, and some knitting that I was working on. DH tried to call his cell phone, but it went straight to voicemail so that was no help. We're praying it will turn up, but getting less and less optimistic. But, nothing's impossible for God so still hopeful. But, if it's truly gone, I won't be able to get another Palm for a very long time as we're living paycheck-to-paycheck at the moment.

SOOoooo sick of being sick

So, we're on our third virus/flu of the season (within the past 4 or 5 weeks) and I'm ready to be done! This most recent time around, I just had a cough and it was starting to get better and I was going to be ok with that, the cough wasn't too terrible. Then Eli developed a runny nose (part of the cough or something new, not sure), and now I've got the drainage which I really very much dislike, my nose is getting raw and I don't have my Puffs plus to ease the pain. Now Gigi has a runny nose too, we are just getting each other sick and sicker. I'm upping my water intake which I should do anyway, also got to sleep in a bit this morning which was SO nice. I just really long for the day when we'll be in the clear and hope that when we get there, we'll stay that way for a looooooonng long time.

My Nap

(Sometimes I just can't resist the urge to rhyme, ... sorry!)

Being drained of all my sap,
I was in desperate need of a nap

My body didn't want to settle
and Eli made noise like a kettle

I thought my nap plans were a bust
But DH knew they were a must

So bravely he held down the fort
While I slept like in a resort.

(thanks DH!)

Bummed

I've been looking forward to going to the church down the road for the last 2 weeks now and wouldn't you know it, DH came down with a high fever last night (103.6) and was starting to talk goofy so I decided that it would not be a good idea to go and expose everyone at church with our virus, especially since the rest of us still have coughs and Eli is now starting to have a runny nose... So we had church here today (watching 3ABN) and we'll try again next week. It's too bad as today was potluck and we had been invited over to the pastor's house after lunch, but maybe we'll get a chance to do that another time. But I am rather disappointed. I'm so ready to be done with all this sickness!!! 'K, I'm off to pop some more vitamin Cs and Echinacea/Goldenseal.

Eli's bad day

Ouch! Poor Eli was the victim of gravity and distracted parents twice today. The first time we were at the food court getting lunch. Gigi needed to use the restroom so I took her. Then DH's phone rang so he put the tray of food down that he had in one hand, sat Eli down in a chair (he sits very well) so he could find his phone (in one of his pockets). In that short time, Eli tipped over (maybe reaching for DH? I don't know, wasn't there) and fell on the floor, clunking his head. Then at home, I stepped from the family room to our bonus room to say something to DH and I heard clunk/"waaaaaa!" Apparently Eli had been on the couch (he was on the floor last I knew, I didn't know he was on the couch, wondering if Geo put him up there to be with him). Anyway, it's been one of those days that I want to go sit in the dunce-mommy corner and dutifully wear my hat. Thank God there has never been a day so coincidentally bad in all of his life before now. I know that we'll be extra vigilant to make sure that he's down low, not where he could fall anymore.

On a slight side note, it's amazing how resilient little kids and babies are. Both times I checked his pupils just to make sure he wasn't suffering from a concussion or anything like that. Both times, apart from some crying at first, he's been fine, acting perfectly normal, wanting to eat, play in a baby play area, walk with his walker, play with Daddy... so thank God for that. I'm so glad that he has a hard head and a capable guardian angel.

It's still so cool

Eli is just over 10 months old and he's starting to mimic big-time. He shakes his head "no" when he sees me do it, made noises into a pipe when his daddy did it, was trying to sing (bah bah bah) with a musical toy today, and pointed at me (from Grandma's arms) yesterday when he saw me walking across the yard (ok, not mimicking, but still very awesome). He's getting so good at crawling, plays better with his brother and sister now and also alone than he ever did before. He very much likes real food, gets downright insistent about wanting food so we're starting to teach him the sign for "more." I can't remember when we started with Gigi, but I think it's about time with him. I know I've been thru all this stuff with the first two, but even if I had 10 more, I would still be wowed by the things babies and kids can do. Gigi impresses me with her grasp of language, Geo does more and more things every day and shows a grasp of understanding when I talk to him that is neat (as in I can carry on deeper conversations/discussions with him than I can with his sister).

Poor Geo got yet another virus, this one affecting his lungs. Gigi, Eli and I have coughs (mine is very minor), but Geo had fever the past couple of days and has been lethargic. Today he started acting more normal tho, and his coughs are becoming more productive so I'm hoping that signals the nearing end of this bout. I'm so glad that better weather is on the way so that all this sickness can vamoose.

Church Shopping

This last Sabbath was our official first Sabbath away from our old church. We went and test drove a church about 10 minutes from our house (even closer than the last one), and we were pleasantly impressed. It's a church plant, a small church, maybe 50 members, but they did have a lot of children our kids' ages and everyone seemed to be very involved in the activities and also were very friendly. We felt right at home there. There was even a nice mother's nursing room with a window and speakers and a comfy chair and some cribs... There are speakers throughout the building so you don't miss much if you have to step out. The chairs were comfortable, the preacher was young and talented (he can sing and preach :), and there were quite a number of other homeschool moms in the church. I think with a little tweaking (adding a class for Geo so he doesn't have to go to Sabbath School with the babies, replacing snacks with a craft time, and eventually moving the ladies' rest room from its current spot near the front of the sanctuary to a better place in the entryway hall [which is in planning]...), I think we could be very happy there. It's only been planted since October and it seems to be growing fast so that could be good. It won't be this tiny forever. And it's super-convenient. But we do think we owe it to ourselves to check out 3 or 4 other churches which are sort of in our area as well just to make sure we find the best fit for our family. We want a church that has good programs for our kids so that's definitely a consideration.

Diaper Trouble

I'm thinking it's a result of the messy diarrhea diapers from Eli's 2 flus, (sorry!), but this last batch of diapers that I washed came out smelling a little off. I ignored it thinking they would air out in the dryer, but the smell only intensified. It was so bad that the smell (somewhere between sweet and skunk) got lodged in my nose and didn't want to vacate for a long time. Needless to say I had to wash them again, but it still didn't get much better so I washed them with Sport Wash (2 caps full) and they smelled considerably better after that wash, but woe to me, they still were holding on to a tiny bit of smell after the 2nd dry so here we go again, I'm washing them yet again, this time with 3 caps full of Sport Wash, hoping that 3rd times a charm. This wash certainly hasn't been worth my while with all the water and electricity and detergent I've used.

ABC Fun

One of my favorite homeschool projects has been some alphabet letters that I made for my kids to learn how to read, spell, learn the names of the letters. I bought a couple of old Scrabble games from the thrift store for about $1 each and with a medium point sharpie marker, I wrote the lower case letters for each letter on the backs of each letter tile. That way they can learn upper and lower case letters. I have fun trying to come up with words for Geo to spell and I think he has more fun reading words that way than just reading them in print on paper (though he's doing much better in that aspect as well). The colorful tiles were in a thrift store grab bag; they already had letters on them, but I darkened them up with the sharpie too.

Bye Bye Babyhood

Well, Geo lost his first baby tooth tonight :) (sniff). I was on the computer, I had tucked him in bed and I heard tromp tromp tromps of not so tiny feet coming down the hall and he ran in and said (with a very satisfied grin on his face) "my tooth came out." He had gotten up the nerve to pull it himself. I had tucked him in bed with a little plastic bowl under his pillow for him to put the tooth in should it dislodge itself in the night, but it wasn't needed. I even tried to pull it twice earlier in the evening, but I don't think I gave it my all when I tugged (not wanting to hurt him too much) so it didn't budge for me. I'm kind of glad tho, it gives him more courage to be able to deal with stuff like that in the future.

Our Bible Friends

For school I do a bible class every day and my kids get very easily distracted if there are no pictures or something visual for them to focus on so I made these bible friends from the dolls and clothes from the makingfriends.com website. I also added some of my own hair and clothing accessories. It's way easy, here's how I do it. I copy the images of clothes or people or whatever from their website onto my hard drive. I open it in Paint Shop Pro, increase the colors to 16 million, select the magic wand tool, click on the white background, then go ctrl+shift+i to get the selection around all the articles on the page, copy and paste into a new image which gives me a transparent background. There might be an easier way to do this but I haven't figured it out yet. Then I take the freehand selection tool and draw around each item and paste them into a new image, I do the magic wand trick again to make sure that the image saves the smallest dimensions possible. Then I save clothes in one folder, hair and hats in another, and misc in another. I have the dolls in a separate folder too. Then I open one of the dolls, click on shoes or whatever article of clothing I want to add, copy it, paste as a layer in the doll file, move it around to get it just right, then add another article of clothing or hair, headgear... till I have the doll the way I want it. Then I copy merged and paste into a new document, crop it to the right size and voila, my very own bible friend. Here are a few so you can see what I'm talking about (I made these in b&w so my kids could color them, but they would be pretty easy to color in psp):

Getting caught up

Sometime between my last post and now, Geo grew his very first adult tooth, the bottom front right tooth. It's coming in behind his baby tooth which I thought was a little odd, but it's pushing the baby tooth right out and it'll be just a few more days before he'll have lost his tooth, but won't exactly be "toothless."

We've made 2 trips up to the new house with a small moving van and my folks' minivan so we have most of our stuff up here now. There's still some junk and stuff at the other house than we need to clear out, I'd just love to chuck it all, but I suppose there might be a few things we might need before throwing in the towel.

We're all just getting over two bouts with two different flus, one traditional one lasting about a week (DH being the only one to come out unscathed), followed by (for some of us) 2 weeks of gastrointestinal flu. My mom was supposed to come help me unpack this week, but now she's coming down with the GI bug so there goes that wonderful idea. Sigh.

Camping and stuff

I couldn't take it anymore living so far away from DH so we loaded up his truck and our car on Monday and we "moved" up to the new house. We took what we absolutely needed, diapers, clothes, pots and pans, food... and we're setting up house. It's kinda fun :) I keep changing my mind about where I want to put things (ie in the kitchen). We've been cleaning almost non-stop too since we got here. The people who moved out were supposed to clean, but all they really did was make sure the visible surfaces were decent looking (countertops, sinks, ...) and vacuumed the carpet. We were hoping that they would shampoo the rather bedragled carpet, but they didn't so we got a rug doctor and did most of it ourselves on Tuesday. My mom did the kids' rooms and the living room (newer carpet and not as dirty), and DH and I did the bonus room (very dirty) and the family room (as dirty as the bonus or worse, lots of coffee stains). We worked as long as we could stand it (till 1 a.m.) and crashed. We didn't get around to doing our room or the hall, guess we'll have to use mom's carpet shampooer for that. But we got most of the house done anyway. We did such a deep cleaning in the two rooms we did that the carpet was still mighty wet this morning. Luckily God blessed us with a nice day and the kids did go outside a fair bit to play. Also DH sent over a fan from the club to help things dry out. That helped a lot and the family room is now almost dry and the bonus is on its way.

I didn't manage to pack a play pen for Eli so I am improvising by waiting till he's good and tired before I lay him down, then I leave the room so he can settle himself without me distracting him. Usually he's out in under a minute. But a couple of times today he did a little wandering. I put him down in one spot and then checked on him a few minutes later to find him sprawled out on our air mattress, sound asleep. Guess he wants to be close to us, even if we're not right there. Kinda sweet. I'll be glad to have his crib next week tho. Hey, I'll be happy to have a lot more next week, why stop at the crib? lol

My folks are coming down to our old house on Sunday and will help us load up a small moving truck, their van and Daniel's truck if he choses to drive it down. That way we can get our washer, dressers, beds, sewing table, possibly the love seat, kitchen table, desks and whatever other things we could really use before we get around to "the big move." The big move will be the one that hopefully our church will help us with. It will be whatever is left after the mini-move and this Sunday's move... the entertainment center, dining set, guestroom bed, couches, dryer, and all the rest of the junk in our basement (can we all say "yard sale!"?)

Gideon is getting one of his adult teeth in and he's mighty proud :) It's the bottom right front tooth. It's growing in behind (not under) the tooth above it so I hope that's not a problem. He's been so jealous of one of his friends who only just turned 5 and started loosing her baby teeth when she was still 4 so I know he's ready to join the croud. We must hurry and take our family pictures while his teeth are all still intact. Now if Eli would stop being so succeptible to gravity, stop losing his balance and toppling over when he's crawling... Poor kid, he's kinda like his brother in that regard, G1 was always clunking his head on something when he was learning how to crawl and walk.

I love my new kitchen. It's smaller than my old one, but it's laid out so much better, everything is right there and very convenient and there's actually more storage and counter space so I'm pretty pleased. It's cheery and warm and a lovely place for me to hang out during the day.

Our impending move

The cat is finally out of the bag to our church family. We let the church board know on Wednesday to start looking for replacements for our positions (Men's Ministry Leader, Communications Director, Youth Song Leader and whatever else DH does, and Cradle Roll Leader [me]), and then sent out a post to everyone else on Thursday. There are still lots who will be surprised since we didn't have their email addys. The associate pastor's wife and kids came over on Wednesday afternoon to help me pack (or watch the kids so I could pack). They were able to stay quite a long time which was GREAT! I got all of my kids' clothes sorted (20+ large plastic totes full!), weeded out and ended up with 2 large & 2 smaller boxes to donate or sell and 2 large boxes to hand-down to the kids' girl cousin (just a little older than Eli). I'll probably end up keeping 5 or 6 boxes (maybe a couple more) of clothes that each of my kiddos is either currently in, or will grow into in the next few years. All of Gigi's too-small clothes will keep getting saved for her cousin so I won't have to keep them longer than a few months to a year at a time. I also got some books packed for our once and future yard sale and a couple more boxes of the kids' books that we'll keep.

On a different note, today was DH's birthday so I made fresh bread and rice pudding (a couple of his favorites) and the kids & I gave them the dress shirts and ties that I was able to get on an old gift card that I needed to use up. I totally got the wrong sizes so we'll have to go back and get the right ones, but at least he had something to open on his birthday :) I hope he had a nice day.

Our very mobile baby

Eli has been doing the military crawl for a couple of months now and just the other day (Wednesday) he took about 3 crawl "steps." He took a few more yesterday and then today he started taking a few steps behind a walker. All this at just over 8 months. He's also started saying "Baa baa baa," "baa baa" or sometimes just "Bob" when he wants to nurse (short for our code word Boppy?), who knows, but I still count that as his 3rd word :)

Firefox is flaking on me

I may have to reinstall my Firefox because it's acting weird on me. It won't let me post images in blog posts, not sure why. Probably an extension that I installed that's wigging out on me. So till I can get around to it, I'm stuck with IE. Guess it'll work in a pinch.

Light at the end of the tunnel

We now have a closing date... January 15. I was really hoping that they'd be willing to move the date up a little, and we just found out that on my parents' part, it would have been a go, but the owners of the house will be closing on the condo that they're buying on the 15th as well and just want to do both of them on the same day. Oh well, I'm not ready to move just yet anyway. I did get one more box packed today, lol. Didn't really make a dent tho.

As I was looking at pics of the house again tonight, I realized that the floor plan for the house was a little off in the master bedroom so I re-did it. Here it is:

I don't have bedside tables for the kids yet, will have to work on that (freecycle) and I'd eventually like toget matching bedside tables for my room (maybe the kids could have ours and we could get "new" ones). My dresser can either go over by the crib or in the nook by the dresser (we'd have to remove a dressing table area which is fine with me). I measured all of my furniture so most of it is to scale in this mock-up.

I did this with the really cool, online furniture placement subscription service from icovia.com. They have a "try it free" option which I have had so much fun playing around with. I just can't save my creations so have to screen capture them. I wish I could make a living drafting up floor plans for people to help them determine furniture placement. That would be so much fun.

Getting more real

Mom just told me that they got their funds for the house so closing could happen soon. I told her to let the current owners know so they can start making arrangements. They still have to get the mold treated and the wiring straightened out and the final inspection. Plus 10 days to move, but at least there is light at the end of the tunnel. I'm very excited, can't wait! Poor G1 is still dealing with some feelings of sadness and/or loss in regard to the move. He says he'll miss his friends (I will too, sniff), they will be too far away to visit very often (true), he'll miss this house (the only one he remembers), it's so nice and big... the other house has a lot of doors (I think meaning that it's not the open floor plan that he's used to). I kind of think that the sooner we can get settled in the new house, the better it'll be for all of us. Wish I had more time to pack (more time during the day, not between now and when we move), maybe I'll be able to do some packing this weekend, I hope I hope.

Almost Cruisin'

Eli is pulling up on things now and I will find him standing up in his crib, holding on to the side rail when he wakes up from his naps. His balance is getting better and better.

Aha! I knew it!

Another tooth showed it's face today and I'm glad that Eli's wakefulness has a reason. He actually slept in till 8:30 this morning which was mighty nice. Hope he'll do that again tomorrow.

Happy Boxing Day

When I lived in Malawi, Boxing Day was the day when we'd "box" up our leftovers or small gifts to give our help, and any other locals who provided a service to us. It was usually soap and toothpaste and practical things like that. Anyway, I regress... I am now over the Christmas hump and I'm still all in one piece, lol.

Sunday, we went to the pediatric ward at the hospital around noon and gave out gifts to the few kiddos who were there, also left a few more in the kids ER for the ones who might come through later.

Then we came home and we all cleaned house a bit, the kids cleaned in their room too so I could wrap presents. In the evening the kids and I acted out the Christmas story as read from the Bible by DH. We also sang a bunch of Christmas carols which was fun. Then we opened presents (well, the kids did anyway). We actually ended up with more than I thought. I forgot that DH had brought some dollar store toys home awhile back so I got them out of hiding and wrapped those (Dora dominos, a Dora velcro bullseye game, a plastic doll, some trucks, several stocking stuffers, and whatever I came up with the other day). I didn't get the quilt or finger puppets done in time so they will have to wait a little longer. They had fun playing with their toys till it was time for bed. Gigi played with her tea set with her ceramic doll. Then it was bedtime and mommy got to stay up till after 1 a.m. again working on Gigi's quilt.

Yesterday, after getting up, we did some more cleaning before my parents got here. After they got here, I started an apple pie and my rolls in the bread maker. While we were waiting for lunch, we worked on a puzzle. For lunch we had roti, vegetarian "conch" stew on rice, rolls (they were't done till everyone was done eating tho :(, green salad, and green bean salad (diced tomatoes, chopped small cooked fresh green beans, chopped boiled eggs, mayo & garlic salt to taste...yummo!). Very non-traditional, but very good! We waited on the dessert for a couple of hours to give our tummies time to digest. After lunch, we let the kids open their presents from Grandma and Grandpa. I know I'll probably forget something, but here's what I remember: a coloring book and large box of crayons each (these are for the older two unless I specify), a Russian hat for G1, matryoshka / nesting dolls for Gigi, a Leappad Word Wammer game for both of them, a firetruck and train that track a dark line on paper (a black crayon or magic marker line works), a quilt for Gigi and a box of real Legos (not Duplos) for G1. Eli got a graduated shape stacker toy (with the rings getting smaller as they go up), and a baby Leappad. After this, DH & I sat down with Dad so he could show me some things for the contract work I'm doing for him. Then a little before M&D left to go back home, our new neighbors came over with gifts for the older 2. I had never met the wife so it was really nice to chat with them for a little bit. They were really nice. I'm going to make some banana bread today or pumpkin bread to take over there as a thank you. I'll have the kids make a card too.

Eli started babbling "da da" yesterday so that was his gift to his dad. He also let me sleep in till 8:30 this morning so that was his gift to me :) He's doing much better so I think maybe it was just teething (he did get snuffy too) and hopefully he's past the bad part for whatever tooth is trying to come in.

House Update

Mom's glad that they did a home inspection because the inspector found mold under the house which the current owners will have treated. Also there was a problem with the ground wires to the outlets so an electrician will have to come out and get that fixed as well. There is only sub-flooring under the carpet. If it had been hard wood, we'd probably have ripped up the carpet. Oh well... Also, Mom asked about their piano and they said that if their son didn't want it or have room for it, they'd be open to selling it. We can hope :) G1 is getting so good on the piano and I really want him to have one available to him at the new house.

Christmas Eve

I can't believe it's already going to be Christmas tomorrow. I'm not ready, waaaaah! I stayed up late last night knitting finger puppets for the older 2, got about 4 done. Well, mostly, I still need to add hair and faces. I'm hoping I can do that this afternoon during "quiet time" and I'll have to get the wrapping done then too. I guess it's going to be a craft kit for G1, a ceramic doll (for Gigi's dresser), a couple of other odds and ends from the thrift store, and the finger puppets. Plus G1 and Gigi will be exchanging dollar store gifts that I helped them get for each other. I hope it will be enough. This afternoon we're going to go to a local hospital and take presents for the kids who will be stuck in the hospital at Christmas. Tomorrow my folks will come down and bring more presents and I'll also hopefully have a quilt sewed up for Galena by then. Kinda tips the scales in her favor tho... hmm, maybe I'll save the puppets and quilt for tomorrow and we can open the other ones tonight. I feel kinda rotten because I didn't even have time to make anything for DH or my mom & dad. My intentions were to have a passel of finger puppets, a collection of nice knitted food, some sweaters, hats and scarfs for their Pooh bears, ... a scarf (Flora) for my mom, maybe some slippers for my dad, a manly scarf for DH... If I didn't have to work every spare moment, I would have been able to do it I think. Oh well, I just hope the older folk will understand. For DH (whose birthday is coming up in another couple of weeks or so), I might be able to knock out a scarf and I also have a couple of gift cards that I can use to buy some necessities like underwear/undershirts, socks, dress shirts, nice ties... I thought I'd wait for another week or so to let the holiday shopping/returning die down a bit before doing that.

The Wakey Monster

I think we have a "wakey monster" loose in our house. His job is to keep Eli awake as much at night as possible and ruin mom & dad's chances for a decent night's sleep. Yawn, yawn and loooonngg drawn-out yawn. He used to let me sleep in till 8 or 8:30 (before the time change), but since then, seems to want to wake up before the sun does. If I get to bed early enough it's not a huge problem, but last night (er, this morning), it was 1:30 a.m. And then he didn't want to sleep in his crib, he would wake up and cry every time I put him in his crib after nursing him. So I let him sleep in bed with us which worked a little better, but then I was more accessible. He's either trying to "up" my milk supply or his sniffles that he seems to have developed in the last day or so are interfering with his sleep. Ugh! I hope whatever it is decides to vamoose soon so I can get some better sleep again soon.

Pullups

These are the physical pull up type rather than the disposable diaper type and they are being performed by Eli. He's also getting up on his knees, rocking back and forth so will be crawling soon. What a guy!

A Blue Christmas

I'm having such a hard time getting into the Christmas mood this year. I have the spirit and desire, but time and energy are another thing altogether. With 2 kids messing things up faster than I can clean and one baby crawling around (me going one step ahead making sure there isn't anything on the floor he could choke on...), I'm not getting a whole lot done. Plus I've started packing and the place is quite frankly a mess. I really want to find room for the tree... I really almost wish we could be in the new house for Christmas. We could put the tree in the living room (or family room for that matter) in front of the window, we'd have enough room... Oh well. I did get the mantle decorated and the kids put a bunch of plastic balls on our ficus tree, lol. I'm really hoping that I can get to it sometime this weekend or next week when DH will be home.

The House Story

It's really a pitiful story and yet is full of hope too. DH owns/runs/manages (with the help of 1 part-time employee, well, not counting me) a fitness franchise almost 2 hours north of where we are currently living. He's been in business for himself for 3 years and we're still not breaking even. In his defense, there was gradual growth and it was paying for itself for a few months prior to Hurricaine Katrina hitting. Then gas prices spiked and our membership started dropping. We haven't had an income aside from $400 a month that DH was able to pay me for awhile (I work part time handling the deposits). Last year I started doing some contract data entry work part-time from home which paid a little better, but still not enough to make ends meet. We've used up our savings, cashed in all our profitable stocks and bonds (we'd lose money after commission on any we still have), cashed in our retirement, racked up massive credit card bills, till finally we got a foreclosure notice and chose to avoid that with bankruptcy. Not a fun thing, but we really want to try to make the club work, we just need more time/a new start... yada yada. We've prayed and prayed about it and know we have lots of people praying for us. We feel that God is leading us to leave our house and probably to move closer to the club so I can help out more and so that we can be together more as a family. DH has been staying up there during the week so we only see him on the weekends. It's tough being an only parent during the week to 3 very active/needy (one nursing and in diapers) kiddos and trying to find time to fit in 3 or 4 hours of work a day. So we were going to have to see if we could find something in the $300-$500 a month range, but even that was going to be pushing our limits (after taxes, utilities, insurance...). Then my parents said they wanted to look for investment property up in that area and they'd let us live in it rent-free until we can get back on our feet or start making payments. My mom got on the ball right away and her realtor neighbor helped her find an older (40 years old) brick home about 10 minutes away from the club (hallelujah!!!), 3 minutes away from our bank (where I'd be making the deposits), 4 minutes from Wal-Mart (appologies to those who HATE Wal-Mart, but that's all we can('t) afford right now), very close to a library, maybe 10 minutes from my best friend, 15 minutes away from my brother and his wife (and the mall), a few minutes from the interstate... The house is on 2+ acres of land and even tho it doesn't have a basement like our current house, it has an extra room and both a living room and a den (which our house doesn't have) so it may actually have more room (at least more rooms). It comes with a pool (yee-haw, and it's fenced in), a treehouse, riding mower, some other tools and pool equipment and a long paved driveway. I am just so jazzed and almost can't wait for closing so we can start to move our things in. It'll be a cinch for DH to take boxes every time he goes up to work (till we finally get moved in for real). There are so many good things about moving up there, but we will really really really miss our church family down here. I wish we could transplant our favorites up there. I think that'll be the hardest part. It's not like we're going where we know no one, but it's still going to be sad. And it'll take time to build up new friendships... I just hope we can find a church that has a good kids program. I think our church down here does pretty well, but not all churches are like that. DH is going on the home inspection today, wish I could be there, but I really didn't want to have to spend the day up there and also didn't want to have to drive so far just to see the house so pics will have to do for now. As soon as my parents close, I'm hoping DH can go get exact dimensions of the rooms and what-not so I can draft up a more accurate floor plan. I'm so goofy about that sort of thing, I love to imagine where I'm going to put things, how things are going to look...

Swirl Ball

I made this knit ball for Eli for Christmas and thought I'd include how I "followed" (ahem, changed) the directions:

Pattern:
I use two different colored needles of the same size so I know which side I’m on, I had a green needle in my left hand when I was on the right side when I made this ball. Much easier than trying to keep track of what row you’re on. I didn’t bother with markers once I got the hang of the pattern.

Right side noted with + and wrong side with –.

Instructions for One Section:

For first section Row 1: Loosely cast on 30 stitches, turn.

For remaining sections Row 1: Knit next 4 stitches thru short row turn loop

and loop of next stitch (to close gap from short row turn from previous row), k
6, k next 16 short row stitches as before, k 5 (–) , turn.

For this next section, once I got started, I just knit till I got to the SRS
and knew that was my last stitch, then made a SRT and started the next row.

Row 2: + k 10, do a short row turn (SRT; yarn forward, slip next stitch purlwise, yarn back, move stitch back to left needle purlwise, turn)

Row 3: – k 6, SRT

Row 4: + k 6, k into short row stitch from previous row (SRS), SRT

Row 5: – k 7, k SRS, SRT

Row 6: + k 8, k SRS, SRT

Row 7: – k 9, k SRS, SRT

Row 8: + k 10, k SRS, SRT

Row 9: – k 11, k SRS, SRT

Row 10: + k 12, k SRS, SRT

Row 11: – k 14 (to end of row)

Row 12: + k 14, SRS, SRT

Row 13: k 9, SRT (6 stitches left on left hand/wrong side needle)

Row 14: k 9, SRS, SRT

Row 15: k 9, SRT (7 stitches)

Continue on like this, knitting up to and including the SRS, then performing an SRT on right sides, knitting to 2 stitches from previous SRS, then performing an SRT on the stitch just before the previous SRS, working your way across the row till there are 15 stitches on your right side needle (5 stitches after you’ve knit the 9+SRS for that row).

For this section, k to two stitches before the SRS from the row before, SRS, SRT, do this on the Right Sides and Wrong Sides.

Row 32: + k 15, SRT

Row 33: – k 13, SRS, SRT

Row 34: + k 12, SRS, SRT

Row 35: – k 11, SRS, SRT

Row 36: + k 10, SRS, SRT

Row 37: – k 9, SRS, SRT

Row 38: + k 8, SRS, SRT

Row 39: – k 7, SRS, SRT

Row 40: + k 6, SRS, SRT

Row 41: – k 5, SRS, SRT

Row 42: + k 10 > turn.

Change colors.

Our New House

I'll add the gory details later, but for now I want to post a pic of the floor plan (Note: Since I originally posted this, I have a slightly more accurate floor plan here.











It's very rough, based on a pencil sketch that my mom made. I haven't seen the house yet, but I do have some pics:

Crocodile Tears

Eli is starting to cry real tears now. And when he giggles, he sounds so much like his older brother and sister, it's uncanny. He's only 7 months old!

Kiss kiss

Eli has started making kissing noises. It's really cute. Of course I can't seem to make him do it against my cheek, but it's a start.

Roll over, roll over, part II

Eli rolled over back to belly, for the first time (that I know of) yesterday. He's getting very good about twisting himself in my lap to be facing the way he wants. He has the military crawl down pat and will have the crawling thing mastered in the next few days. He loves to stand while holding on to something and tonight had a toy baseball bat (about 8" long) and was deliberately hitting something with it and grinning ear to ear every time he did (totally knew what he was doing). It's so cool to see the things that are happening with his development. Seems like there is something new every day.

Tooth Chart

I'll just keep track of Eli's teeth here so that my notes won't be all scattered about.

More Eli Milestones

2nd tooth, top right 11/15/06

Turning around in a circle on the floor 11/20/06

Saying Mama 11/20/06

Perfecting the military crawl/almost crawling 11/24/06

Pocket Ballerina

A little girl from Gigi's Sabbath School class had a birthday last week and we went to her party at an inflatable jumping place. I didn't have anything to take for a gift so I started knitting some Little Dudes. The problem is that I forgot to bring hair color (I was making them in the car on the way to the party) so I couldn't finish them in time (also my older 2 have since played "I spy" with them and have forgotten where they hid them, grr). I told the mom I was sorry but that I was making something. So I came home and made a couple more little dudes, then started on a Pocket Ballerina. I had some trouble with some of the directions, they really need to be revamped (I totally went with different hair, loopy crochet hair), but got her finished last night at around 12:30. Yawn. I think she's cute, hope Alyana thinks so too :)





(closeup of face)

Sleeping beauty and G1s Show and Tell

Daddy told Gigi to go clean in her room and things got really quiet. Here's why. I guess she was pretty tired because she didn't want to wake up when I went in there around 6. She's the type that will do just about anything but clean so I guess she chose the lesser of the two evils.
G1 came running up the steps this afternoon and very excitedly showed us the piece of bark that he found that looks like a glove. He took it with him to Sabbath School today to show the other kids. If he didn't I was going to take it with me to show my (Gigi & Eli's) class (lol).

I've got the Blu's ... finished!

The 2nd pic shows how I ended up doing the stitching. I did a dashed line, then when I got to the end, I turned around and filled in the blanks.

I had all the pocket and fly stitching done when I discovered that I had it all turned around. The back pockets were sewed on the front and the front pockets were sewed on the part of the jeans where I had added some short rows to add to the rise. So, snip-snip , I had to do it again. They are very soft (due to the 20% nylon content in the yarn) and kind of light-weight so not for night-time, but nice day-time longies. I think I'll make some more out of this yarn (actually I know I will), but I think I'll do Aubrey Doodlepants next time. I could still add some faux stitching if I feel like it to make them seem more jean-y. Pros about this pattern: attention to detail, looks very much like little jeans, Cons: no crotch gusset, no short rows (I didn't make enough either), no give in the seam stitching. All in all I'm glad I made them, I think they are really snazzy :)

1st Tooth

Eli's 1st tooth finally popped thru today (lower, right, central incisor) I have born the brunt of it's razor sharp newness too, much to my chagrin, but I'm hoping he'll get the message (not to bite me) super-quick and it won't last too long. He's also sitting up so well. Just last weekend he could only sit for maybe 1 minute unassisted without toppling over. Closer to this last weekend, he started sitting for longer periods of time and now he can sit for 10 minutes or longer, just playing by himself. He's also moving around a lot more, not crawling just yet, but he reaches for me more if I'm near enough to him. He also loves to stand. It won't be too long before he'll be pulling up on things and trying to crawl.

I just love it how babies learn how to do things so quickly and Eli is just constantly amazing me, but he has no idea just how amazing he really is. He doesn't have an overinflated sense of his own accomplishments. What a guy!