New Year's Eve

We spent the end of 2012 saying goodbye to a few things:

This madrona held a swing when Mark was a boy.  He used to swing out over the pasture until one day he fell off and got knocked unconscious...which may explain a few things...

Revenge is a dish best served cold.

This is the last light of 2012.  I felt a little sad to see 2012 go.  It was one of the best years of my life.  We experienced our first year with Jack, record snowfall, a septic system disaster, a family vacation, lots of cub scout fun, interesting homeschool units, trips to Ferndale to visit friends and family, a daughter getting married, the birth of Lula Joy, fun with local friends, the birth of our first grandchild, and the best Christmas we've ever had!

We are celebrating 2012 by going back to the 1980's and watching Labyrinth and The Goonies.  Evie's opinion on David Bowie is, "just a boy with crazy hair."  We had root beer floats, and everyone except Daniel stayed up late!

I Want My Computer Back

Mark has done a wonderful thing.  With a kind donation from the Kris&Ami branch of the family, Mark set up an Xbox to stream video from our computer to the TV.  Not only did he do that, he set up a second computer in the living room.  This brings our network up to three computers (connected by a cable that runs under the house), two video game systems (Nintendo 64 and Xbox 360), all hooked up to our old TV with another cable that runs under the house.  The kids can't tell the difference in quality between the streaming video and shoving a tape in the VCR, but we can.  The tapes and DVDs are no longer piled up on top of the entertainment center! Well, they won't be once we are finished cleaning up...

The bad thing about this set up is only temporary: Mark has completely taken over my new computer.  He is obsessively ripping all our DVDs (quick! before it gets scratched!) and no one is allowed to use the computer when it is ripping.  That means no pictures.  So stay tuned and hopefully I will have something interesting to share by the end of the week...

Dogs

Good Dog

Bad Dog

Any Questions?

I guess junk food effects little people AND little dogs...

washPOD, Twin Firs Style

This post is to honor my friend, who is one amazing person.  She sent me the following picture:

 With a message:

I had to share this funny picture from Value Village.

The Euro Wash Pod.  Bwahahaha!  I suppose it does work well but wouldn’t a bucket do the same thing.  

I suppose a bucket would do the same thing.  But if you just made a bunch of turkey stock and needed to do some dish washing, I guess a good stock pot would do the same thing.  Kill two birds with one stone!

 Bath time doesn't need to be boring.   Or expensive. 

For the record, the pot was clean and no babies were harmed or stewed in any way.  And I'd like to thank my assistant , IJ, for photographing the event.  He has learned that if he hears me laughing crazily, he better show up because something great is going to happen.  This time I happened to be cleaning up the stock-making dishes when I heard Daniel splashing in the bathtub.  My mind put the two together and all I had to say was, "Remember that picture I showed you?" for Ian to join in.  He says I'm a fun mom.  *smile*

A Christmas to Remember

Now that the kids are sent off to bed, I can sit down, look at the pictures, and remember how much fun we had over the last three days... In past years, I've split our three days of Christmas celebration into three different posts, but this year we'll do it all at once...  This is what I want to remember:

The Jule Kaga

Every year for my entire life, I've eaten Jule Kaga.  I can't have Christmas without it.  I like to use my Nana's recipe, but it's tricky!  I've had many years where I just couldn't get it right.  My first batch this year had too much flour, too many kneaders, and...(I'm so ashamed to admit this) I forgot the cardamom.  It was awful.  In my defense, I was seriously distracted by phone calls and toddler/baby interruptions.  Instead of giving the failed bread to the chickens (like I'd ever do that), we made it into bread pudding.  I added the cardamom to the sugar/egg/milk mixture and we've never had better bread pudding.

The Christmas Cookies (and other treats)

We made gingerbread cookies.  I used whole wheat to balance out the rest of the sugar we consume this time of year.  I had planned on making a gingerbread house, but this is not the season of my life that I should add extra duties.  We just ate the candy plain.

Speaking of adding extra duties, arguing with Daniel on whether or not he has to go potty is no longer a priority.  I'm choosing my battles with this kid.  He makes excellent sugar cookies though!

This funny treats were made by melting candy on parchment paper at 350 degrees.  My experimental batch was very thin and the kids loved crunching into it.  Shane said (much to Mark's delight), "It's just like eating broken glass!"  Hmmm, I wonder when he did that?

 My Wonderful Husband

What can I say about Mark? He is awesome! He goes to any length to make these kids happy.  And me too!  Many years I have questioned his priorities and turned myself into Scrooge, The Grinch, and Mr. Krabbs.  This year, I chilled out, took some vitamin D, and went with the spirit of Christmas.  And he was right.  Of course.

Christmas Adam

The kids and I had our traditional sleepover downstairs.  We stayed up late watching Miracle on 34th Street and It's a Wonderful Life.  Only Fiona and Ian made it to the end.  I didn't.  I ended up sleeping in my bed with my co-sleepers.  Next year I will rejoin the Christmas Adam club.

Christmas Eve

Sometime during the Christmas Adam movie fest, a child left a gumdrop on Lula's blanket.  And somehow, it got stuck to the back of her head the next morning.

She didn't like it.

This was all during our annual reading of The Best Christmas Pageant Ever.  Which is one of the best Christmas books ever.  I always cry at the end.  My kids laugh like crazy when Gladys comes out yelling, "Hey! Unto you a child is born!" but they laugh ever harder when Imogene is yelling at people to stay away from her baby and that if she would have gotten to name him, his name would be Bill.

I was still working on Daniel's Christmas stocking on Christmas Eve.  Right up to the very last minute.  I finished it while we watched The Polar Express, another movie we watch every year.  If I would have known I'd be knitting eight (so far) of these stockings, I would have picked a different pattern.  I burned out on these before I even got Fiona's finished!  With this one, I actually ripped out an entire motif and redid it.  And I think I'm going to rip out the reindeer and redo them.  I don't think I'll be able to look at them for 20 years if I don't...

 Christmas Day

Before the chaos

Sometime during the night, a special person arrived.  I should say people, because there were two of them!  Laura and "Big" Shane were able to come for Christmas!  When Ian found out they would be here for Christmas morning, he said, "Christmas wishes do come true!" and "It would be really boring with just us!"  Sorry Ian, I can't agree with the second one-it is never boring here!

Santa had mercy on the dogs and brought them giant chew sticks.  Mina was so excited that she couldn't sleep!  Mark had to get up and hide the chew sticks in the oven so the dogs would settle down.  Why is this something to remember? Stay with me...

During the chaos, Jack is just hanging out in the middle of all the kids.  He hardly even moved when we threw things at him!

All he wanted to do was take his bone outside and run around, but Mark wouldn't let him.

Mark said to Fiona, "Do I get a Christmas snuggle?"  Fiona replied, "Okaaay, but I just put on my lipstick!"  Her watermelon scented chapstick was probably her favorite gift!

Lula slept through the present opening, but she was up in time to show off that she learned to sit all by herself on her first Christmas! 

 The girls got ballerina outfits (Fiona's request to Santa) and stuffed animals (Evie's request).

Ian and Shane got two video games for our old Nintendo 64.  Santa's elves had to go through a used video game store to find them (plus new, refurbished controllers)!  They spent the entire day playing Majora's Mask and Tetris.  Shane didn't even get dressed.  They didn't even need any of the other presents they got.

Fiona, my fancy girl, loved her "lipstick" and her new nail polish.  She made sure Daniel got his nails polished a nice manly orange and that his lips were nicely...lipsticked.  It's a good thing Daniel is so... well, I don't have to worry about Fiona having too much of a feminine influence on him. 

Yes, he loves having his nails "painted" and watching Bina Bina Bina Bina, but he also loves Thomas the Train and fighting with his brothers.  I think having all these sisters will benefit him in the long run.  He'll know how to treat them kindly (ahem) and what makes them tick.

Okay, back to the dogs and the bones.  They managed to consume one entire bone.  It started out as Mina's, but Jack started to eat it after his was taken away when he tried to take it outside.  They took turns tricking each other into leaving the bone somewhere and claiming it when the other dog was gone.  When we realized what they were doing, Mark returned the other bone.  But they wouldn't eat it.  So at the end of the day we had Jack chewing on the end of Mina's bone and Mina hoarding:

 ...the whole bone.  Which has been confiscated again because I do not want to get up with the dogs in the middle of the night because they have a tummy ache.  They are not my dogs, but Mark can't hear them whine through his earplugs.

Christmas Dinner

While Mark cooked our awesome dinner, the rest of us played.  We ate the last of our turkey hens and it came out perfectly.  And since he had been hearing so much about Laura's gravy, he had to prove that he could also make tasty gravy from scratch.  It was tasty alright!  We had to take a family picture around the table (Daniel, after eating candy all day long and not taking a nap, is climbing up my chair like a crazy monkey and is not pictured):

 Rats, Evie wasn't smiling-try again!

 Oh No! Lula is hidden behind the juice pitcher! One more time!

Good enough!

Merry Christmas!

Oatmeal Never Gets Boring

We've been eating oatmeal, bought in 50 pound sacks, for five or more years now.  I can't even remember now why we started doing this, but I'm pretty sure it had something to do with saving mass quantities of money. THIS is a link to my pantry/bucket/bulk buying blog post.  THIS is a link to what my van looks like on shopping day.  And THIS is a link to making oatmeal tasty.

Fiona asks, "Can I play Cinderella?" and then she sings about mockingbirds and sweeps.

Every once in awhile I'm inspired to make the oatmeal a different way.  We often have dried cranberry-orange juice oatmeal or dried cranberry-vanilla yogurt oatmeal, but this morning I took a different route.  The cookie route.  Dried cranberry and white chocolate chips! Shhh! Don't tell the kids-they didn't get any!  The secret with chocolate chips, white or dark, is to sprinkle them in and stir just enough to incorporate.  If you over-stir, the chips melt and every bite tastes the same.  If you let the chips melt in place, you are surprised by a sweet gooey bite of melted chocolate! YUM!

I forgot to mention in my end-of-the-world post that I made Mayan oatmeal for breakfast: brown sugar, cocoa powder, cinnamon, and a pinch of cayenne pepper!  Now that was some tasty porridge that had no leftovers!

The End of the World

I miss Grandad today.  He was always mentioning this date in a joking manner...like we needed to keep the Spam just in case the world ended according to the Mayan calendar.  And he loved anything South American and the movie Apocalypto.  He would have loved to be joking around with us today.

I said I would READ you a story, not FEED you a story!

I had planned to make light of things and have the kids learn about ancient Mayan culture, but Shane found Rodney the Rooster dead and it may have well been the end of the world for him.  We brought on Christmas vacation instead and the kids earned their video games by mucking the chicken coop.  That's when Ian stepped on a nail and it went through his cheap Walmart boots, puncturing his toe.  Not the end of the world; we just washed it out.  Then I found a crack my crock pot, so I just replaced the crock with my old one (the original base shorted out-I knew that crock would come in handy at the end of the world!)

We eat them faster than I can make them!

Tonight I made some awesome cookies and listened to Christmas music and laughed at all the insane things Fiona said (I'll be your cookie taster only I have to eat the whole thing so no one gets my germs).  Then I searched for "The end of the world" and "apocalypse" in Mark's music collection.  It came up with an impressive playlist, so now I'm rockin' out while I wait for the kids to finally wander off to bed.

I LOVE this character!

If the world truly does end today, I will be completely satisfied with what I did with my life.

Lula's 1st Food

What can I say? She loves to eat! (I especially love the picture of her mouth wide open)

In Which We Visit Santa

Remember how I said I wasn't going to take Daniel anywhere?  Except to see Santa, yada, yada, yada?

Well, we saw Santa alright.  But not until I had to make an emergency stop at Target to buy Daniel a new outfit because he got carsick all over the one he had on.  Now I'm really not taking him anywhere ever again...except to see Zoolights...

Grandude

Large Family FUNctioning

Because I'm a blog junkie, specifically a large family blog junkie, I have a hard time admitting that I have reached Large Family Status.  The blogs I read all have ten or more kids, which makes my six (in house) kid family seem small.  I mean, come on! I still drive a mini-van!  So what if we replaced the middle seat with a second bench seat so all the kids can fit?  But when I've noticed that my behavior has changed because of the number of children in my home, I guess I need to 'fess up...I have a Large Family.

For example, I don't make pancakes, muffins, or cookies.  The amount of time it takes to make individual serving sizes outweighs the amount of time it takes to consume these items.  Instead, I make 13x9 pans of puffy oven pancakes (or Dutch Babies), muffin cake, and bar cookies.  Same recipes, shorter time in the kitchen.  My older kids remember what real cookies are and always ask, "Are you making round cookies this time?"  Nope, sorry.  Maybe....never! (which isn't true because I made real peanut butter cookies two weeks ago)

When we go on field trips or picnics, I no longer make sandwiches ahead of time.  I pack jars of pb&j, a loaf of bread, a knife, and a spoon (for the jelly).  I make the sandwiches while kids run and play.  On our last trip to the science center, Mark and I had a beautifully choreographed sandwich-making routine.  He would take a slice of bread and start spreading the peanut butter while I took the next slice of bread and spooned on the jelly.  We'd slap our pieces together and I would hand the sandwich to a child while Mark started the next peanut butter slice.  We got all eight sandwiches made in mere minutes!

And then there is the problem of boots-I've reached the point where I'm going to have to start buying boots of high quality instead of Walmart boots.  If I had only one or two boot wearers and we didn't stay home in our swamp every day or have chickens, I would be just fine buying a $20 pair and handing them down when they grow out of them.  But IJ alone has gone through three pairs of boots this year!  The boots disintegrate in the sunlight and fall apart after only a few months; it's a little spooky.  Shopping for $60 boots for a kid hurts...but if they last through three kids, it will be worth it.  But I won't hold my breath and expect them to last through six kids.

I think I will have made the final leap when I go from traditional easy lunches (sandwiches) to full-on meals for noontime.  I'm so close too.  I made a real chicken soup with veggies the other day.  And today I'm serving chili.  One large family has the oldest daughter prepare salad bar fixings for lunch everyday.  It's so healthy, cheap, and easy!  It's only a matter of time...

Tut's Treasures vs. The Terrible Twos

We finally went to the Pacific Science Center to see Tutankhamun: The Golden King and the Great Pharaohs.  Here is the story of how a regular two year old managed to ruin his mother's only chance to see the artifacts that are on display for the last time in North America.

It all started on the way to Seattle, when Daniel decided to join the car sick club (we're up to four members!).  It seems that every time we need to go somewhere in the morning, someone has to throw up in the car.  They usually outgrow it by the time they are 8 years old.  But they are the reason I don't like to travel without Ziploc bags.  And it's always oatmeal.

Shane and Fiona

We got to the science center on time, but we were told they made a mistake and we had to wait 30 minutes to get our tickets.  This gave me time to hand wash Daniel's shirt in the bathroom and try to dry it with paper towels.  I brought extra pants for him, but not an extra shirt.  I was amazed that he had managed to throw up down the inside of his shirt, even with his seat belt on. 

Ian and Lula

Then it was time to enter the exhibit.  I was pleased to see that we were in the first of three groups to go in.  We went through the three security checkpoints (no photography or video, food or drink) and were brought into a room where they shut the doors.  The guard explained that once we were in the exhibit, there was no exit.  Once you exit, you don't get back in.  At this point, Daniel started acting up.  I had an emergency exit plan in place.  I would take the three youngers out while Mark stayed in with the school aged kids.  But we hadn't even gone in yet and I already had a problem.  Mark gave me that look and hissed, "There is something seriously wrong with this kid.  He must be really sick!"  I hissed back, "If he is sick, there is no way I'm going to Ferndale to help Ami!"  He put Daniel down and I saw at once what his problem was.  I took him to the guard at the door and said, "We technically haven't entered the exhibit yet and my two year old needs to pee.  Can we come back with the next group?" He looked at me and looked at Daniel and hemmed and hawed and Daniel started to really dance...so he agreed and let us out.  Problem solved, right?

WRONG!

This is when Daniel and I played tug-o-war all the way to the bathroom.  "I want to stay with Daddy! I want to stay with Daddy!" he screamed while I argued, "No, you have to go potty!" while everyone in line stared at us.  In the bathroom we argued some more.  He told me to leave.  I left.  I asked if he was finished, he yelled, "NO!"  He missed his target and hit my skirt, the wall, and the floor and cried.  I tried to persuade him to go see Daddy again.  Nope.  He was in serious two year old stubborn denial.  And I was missing my field trip.

Evie and Daniel

We finally finished his business and got back into the exhibit.  I met Mark and the kids in the second of ten galleries.  Gallery sounds big and intimidating, but they were really just little rooms with dramatic lighting.  Daniel was happy to see his Daddy and behaved...for about three minutes.  Then he refused to move.  He didn't want to walk and he didn't want to be carried.  He wanted us to leave and he wanted to stay.  We managed to get him into a hallway between two galleries and then he flat out refused to budge.  Mark and I turned the corner and had a quick argument about hauling him kicking and screaming out of the exhibit.  We decided to send Mark on with the four older kids and I would stay hidden and watching until Daniel decided he wanted to join his family.  Normally in a store I walk away and expect them to make the right choice.  I don't beg, bribe, discuss, or reason.  I walk away.  But I couldn't do that there.  I would peek around the corner every few seconds and Daniel would be looking forlornly at the floor like a lost child.  Every few minutes, a concerned mother would look alarmed and mention something about calling security.  I was forced to peep around and admit that he was mine, which would give up my position to Daniel-and he dug his heels in deeper.  We were getting nowhere with this, so I went back to him and asked, "Do you want to go see dinosaurs or butterflies?"  (Remember, with two year olds you need to give them a choice, not a yes/no question...and anyone with a two year old can attest that any question can be answered with a NO!)  Daniel answers butterflies and we are on our way...for ten feet.  A gentle reminder about butterflies gets him going again and even all the way up the ramp to the important display.

Parents of the Year 2012

At this point we need to pass a security guard.  Daniel quits walking again and I leave him...again.  I tell the security guard that I'm leaving Daniel there until he can decide to walk with me and don't worry, I'm going to hide in the shadows behind him and not really leave.  The security guard, bless his heart, tries to play bad cop with a shiny badge with Daniel.  But Daniel doesn't have any knowledge or experience with cops with shiny badges and doesn't believe he needs to do what he says.  It was kinda fun watching this guy try to reason with a two year old.  Daniel totally won.

Next gallery, Daniel held my hand and walked five paces before he stopped walking and made me drag him for a few paces.  "You can't drag a child by his arm in public!" my husband scolded me.  "I can't spank him either! Come on, let me drag him kicking and screaming out of here! This is no fun! He has pushed me to the outer limits of my patience.  I have never been this far!!!"  Mark scoops him up and manages his wiggling and complaining while we make it through the last two rooms and leave.

Guess what Lula was doing this whole time? Sleeping peacefully and sweetly in the Ergo (thanks, Tracey).

Mark totally earned that candy bar!

We had some time to kill before our IMAX movie, so we headed to see the dinosaurs and butterflies.  In the lobby was a display of:

Guess what? We so totally have some of that stuff from when Mark came and saw the exhibit in 1978!  We have the book and a bunch of postcards, but the necklace is lost.

 Before we got to the dinosaurs (I remember when they were new in the 1980's), I warned Daniel.  "Watch out, Daniel. The dinosaurs are going to eat you!"  He saw one move and hopped right out of the stroller to run away.  Mark scolded me, but I said, "He totally deserved it."  A few seconds later he was saying hi to each dinosaur and introducing them to his Daddy and sister "Nina."

The Good Kids

After dinosaurs, I took Fiona and Daniel to the little kids area while Mark took the older kids to see the other exhibits.  Daniel was acting normal again and I watched him, trying and trying to refill my patience pitcher.

The last fun thing happened when the seagull tried to eat his sandwich and he screamed.  That seagull was persistent! Mark had to protect the little ones until lunch was over.  At this point we argued whether or not we would go to the IMAX movie.  I wanted to go, Mark didn't.  He didn't want to have to leave with Daniel in the middle of the movie or have him make a bunch of noise.  I didn't want to waste the money we paid for the tickets.  He won when he pointed out the movie started ten minutes ago and they don't admit late attenders.  At this point, we parted ways and I went to Ferndale and he went home...

I'm not going to take Daniel into public for a very long time.  Except for Zoo Lights.  And to see Santa.