Eery Invisible Ghosts

Amber taught me about using white crayon and watercolors "Magic Art," but it was my own idea to create mysteriously reappearing ghosts for Halloween.

To create this spooky effect, draw a ghost with white crayon on white paper. Color it in. This is harder than it sounds, so you may have to do it for the child.



Have the child paint the entire sheet of paper.


If she is feeling particularly spunky, she may paint it varied colors. It does not matter -- so long as she covers the entire picture with paint, the ghost will magically appear.

The kids LOVED watching the ghosts appear as they painted. We will definitely do this again. Maybe I will write secret messages for my emergent readers?

Half a Lifetime Ago

Three years and three months ago, a three year, three month old boy joined our family.

My, how time has flown,

but I can barely remember a time when he was not part of our lives.

You will always be my little bunny!

Muffin Tin Monday Thinly Unplugged

banana, carrots, green beans, banana

pan-fried potato, green beans, carrots, pan-fried potato
sukhariki, broccoli, broccoli, sukhariki

"Sukhariki" is one of the few Russian words in common usage in our household. It translates as "crouton," but we use it more like toast.

This batch was cut thin from the remnants of last Friday's french bread. I tossed the bread with olive oil, kosher salt, oregano and garlic powder. It was baked at 300 degrees for precisely the amount of time it took to slice the vegetables. I don't always bother with oil, and we vary the spices according to our whim.

I hope that the Unplugged families will appreciate my lame attempt at integrating this week's theme -- thin -- into our lunch. Except for the broccoli all of the foods were exceptionally thin.

It is also our first time participating in Muffin Tin Monday. The girls really liked having a new presentation for our frequent "bits-and-bobs"lunch, so we may do this again next week.

Melts My Heart

Coming home from the Costume Parade (no pictures, sorry) on Saturday, the kids were a bit hyped up.

Mr warillever ran into the store for a few things, leaving me in the car with two children on a sugar high. They were screeching, poking each other, and otherwise driving me crazy. I suggested that we sing a song.

Agent 002 opened his mouth, and an angelic 6-year old soprano pronounced:

Oh most holy twinity
Undivided unity
Holy God,
Mighty God.
God imowtal
Be a-door-ed.

So Very Grateful

I am so grateful for

• the yardwork that brings neighbors together on warm fall weekends. While raking the side yard yesterday we chatted with our tenant who was coming in from errands, as well as our next door neighbors who were cutting branches away from their roof.
• free firewood from kind neighbors. We will need to dry for a few months, but on some cool night, the branches formerly skimming the neighbors' roof will warm our home.
• movie nights with my family, even if I have yet to stay awake for an entire film.
• mechanically inclined brothers who will (hopefully) repair my finicky van this afternoon.
  

Preserving Nature's Bounty : Applesauce

Despite our own lack of gardening talent, we have been blessed by others' abundance this fall. A neighbor drowning in tomatoes gave us a bushel of scarlet treasure that became salad, salsa and six dinners' worth of tomato sauce.

This week it was apples. Lots and lots of apples.

My sister only just realized that the apples on the trees at her new home are edible. Unfortunately, this realization was made long after our first frost.

The apples were blemished and bug eaten, but wonderfully delicious. They might even be called Golden Delicious.

With some advice from the internet, we decided to transform our bounty into applesauce. After coring and chopping we filled an 8-quart stockpot.



After a long-simmer, we had a pot full of soggy apples







which after a trip through this thing-a-ma-hoosie





became a wonderful, yummy pot of sauce.

Once we realized just how yummy the sauce was, we chopped up the remaining apples to make a grand total of 7 quarts of sauce. One to my sister's home, one for immediate use, and 5 for the freezer. We will be enjoying these apples for weeks to come.

Recipe: Kielbasa Stir-Fry

This is mr warillever's favorite dinner. I have cooked it once a month since I found it in the May 2003 issue of Light and Tasty. Over time we have adjusted the original recipe to our family's tastes and budget.

• 1 package turkey kielbasa*
• 2 small onions, quartered and separated
• 3 carrots cut into matchsticks**
• 2 tablespoons chicken stock***
  
• 1 large can unsweetened pineapple, cubed****
• 2 tablespoons Wondra or cornstarch
• ginger*****
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce

Stir fry kielbasa for 3-4 minutes or until golden brown. Remove kielbasa; stir-fry carrots and onions with one cube of chicken broth.*** Drain pineapple, reserving the liquid. Return kielbasa to the wok and add pineapple cubes. Heat through.

Combine pineapple juice and soy sauce with enough water to make it total 3/4 cup of liquid. Mix in Wondra and ginger until smooth. Add to the wok. Bring to a boil; cook and stir for 2 minutes or until thickened. Serve over sticky white rice.

* Do NOT use regular kielbasa! When fried it becomes very greasy and saturates the vegetables. I cut the kielbasa on the diagonal, then cut those in quarters to form bite-size pieces.

**The original recipe called for 1 cup of shredded carrots. I have found that shredded carrots get too mushy. Cutting into matchsticks is time consuming, but really makes a difference in taste. I also increased the amount of carrots in order to stretch the recipe a bit further.

***I freeze chicken broth into ice cube trays whenever there are chicken bones lying around. You can easily use water or skip this step entirely, leaving the kielbasa in the pan as you cook the veggies.

***An 8oz can is too small; a 20oz can is too large. If you allow the children to eat one ring each as you cook it will be just right.

****The original recipe calls for 1/2 to 1 teaspoon of ground ginger. I grate about 1/2 inch of frozen ginger root. "Real" ginger makes a real difference.

Why We Keep to a Routine

I was a wee bit nervous this morning.

If it were up to me, I would have spent my whole day cleaning. In fact, that was my plan.

But when Agent 004 got up from the breakfast table, she put her dirty bowl in the sink and glanced at the pictorial schedule on the refrigerator. After pointing what she had already accomplished -- "I waked up, put on clothes and ate breakfast" -- she told everyone with excitement, "after we work in the red room we go to the library! I like going to the library!"

So red room and library it was. It was one of our best red room school days in weeks, and I am so glad that our little routine told us to do it. Here are two of my my eager learners:
The homestudy went fine, by the way. Just one more social worker visit and a safety inspection by the fire department, and we will be licensed as foster parents.

I Should Know Better Than This

I am a nervous wreck about our homestudy visit tomorrow.

It is not as if we have never done this before. I know that we are not being judged on the cleanliness of our home or the stunningly perfect answers to all of the social worker's questions.

...yet I have been scrubbing the tile grout and clearing every pile of clutter.

I had myself in quite a tizzy. Then I took five minutes to write up a to-do list.

Very attainable.

In addition to my two-hour Home Blessing (which I usually do on Fridays), I will clean the refrigerator and tidy the front entrance.

That's it -- two and a half hours of work, and we should look like reasonably responsibly organized parents.

I hope.

Wish me luck, please. Or even better, say a prayer or two for us.

Thanks.

Dinner This Week

Monday: Jazzed up leftovers

Thai Fried Rice
Stir-fried Cabbage w/apples and caraway
3 bean salad

Tuesday: Trying out a new veggie

Baked chicken
Stuffing
Swiss Chard

Wednesday: Mr warillever's favorite

Kielbasa Stir-Fry
White Rice

Thursday:

CRAP medley over pasta
Steamed broccoli

Friday:

Frittata

Saturday:

Pizza with this crust

Their own Sense of Style

Can you tell that Cousin F helped Agent 004

choose her clothes this morning?

Pumpkin Picking

We crossed the street to our neighbors' pumpkin patch
...and came home with a wagon-full of autumn beauty.

Just look at those rugged little men.

Zip a dee doo-dah

Zip a dee doo-dah, zip a dee ay
My, oh my, what a wonderful day.
Plenty of sunshine headed my way.
Zip a dee doo-dah, zip a dee ay

There is something about gray fall days that makes me smile.

I have a million things to do today, but thing number one is to transfer pictures to my computer and then pass some on to you.

I'll post our Unplugged project, a book post, and a recap of our Storyland trip. Maybe some leaf pictures, and sailing tidbits, or snapshots of the kiddies cooking.

I juts came accross my journal from our adoption trips and I might transcribe some of that.

What an ambitious week I have planned for this blog....

Mister bluebird on my shoulder
It's the truth, it's actual.
Everything is satisfactual.

Zip a dee doo-dah, zip a dee ay
Wonderful feelin'.
Wonderful day.

Dinner This Week

Sunday: bean burritos, avocado, fire-free salsa, rice, leftover couscous

Monday: at Storyland or thereabouts

Tuesday: baked ziti (from freezer)

Wednesday: chicken-cabbage stirfry over rice

Thursday: mini-meatloaf (from freezer), butternut squash, baked potatoes

Friday: waffles, berries (make extra for freezer)

All that is Wrong With the World

With all of the serious things going on in the world, do you want to know what is really bothering me?

My new pillow. Mr warillever requested a new pillow for himself, so I bought a matched set. I haven't slept since. The situation may be compounded by late nights listening to the Red Sox and Agent 004's restless virus-induced rumblings, but I am so tired. And my neck is achy. Thus you are subjected to this entire whiney post.

They rearranged my favorite grocery store. The store with the logical (non-gimmicky) layout. The store that I could get in and out of because I knew right where everything was. Not only could I not find a thing on my list, neither could the employees.

Notre Dame lost to North Carolina this afternoon. North Carolina. I didn't even know that they had a football team until today. Probably the guys that couldn't make the basketball team.

But the Red Sox just took the lead 6-5, so maybe the world isn't such a bad place after all...

Photo Flashback

Agent 004 playing with F's birthday presents.
April 2007

This is the 6th picture on the the 6th folder of my external hard drive. For a fun challenge, search your own photo files and join Owlhaven's Challenge.

Recipe: Energy Couscous

Energy Couscous is one of our Friday-night favorites. The recipe is very versatile (substitute at will for the fruit -- we love it with chopped apples) and it is very simple to prepare. You get nutritional bonus points if you use whole-grain couscous.

4 tablespoons slivered almonds
½ cup fresh orange juice
4 tablespoons golden raisins
1.5 cup water
6 dried apricots, quartered
½ teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons dried figs,chopped
1 cup couscous
½ teaspoon cinnamon
1 tbs unsalted butter

1. Place the almonds, raisins, apricots, and figs in a bowl with the cinnamon. Cover with the orange juice and refrigerate for a minimum of 30 minutes, covered. It can marinate for as long as overnight.
2. In a saucepan bring the water, salt, and butter to a boil. Stir in the couscous, cover, and simmer over low heat for 5 minutes. Remove from heat and let stand 5 minutes. Fluff the couscous lightly with fork.
3. Transfer the fruit-and-nut mixture to a saucepan and warm thoroughly over medium-low heat. Turn into a mixing bowl and add the cooked couscous. Mix well. Couscous can be served warm or cold.

Sticky Spider Webs

This week's Unplugged theme is "white."

Of course we used our favorite white art medium -- GLUE!

Using an idea I learned from the fabulous Amber, we dipped string into glue, then laid the strings on wax paper to dry.
Of course, with young children, the purpose is the process, not the product:
There was a bit of a distraction when someone realized that straws fit into the bottom of the chair:

...but we got back on track to create beautiful webs. After leaving the strings to dry for a few days...
... we had stiff spider webs to show for our efforts.

Dinner This Week

Sunday: Roasted chicken*, honey-berry stuffing, acorn squash, aloo paratha,** birthday cake
Monday: Crap buffet***
Tuesday: pork and spinach stir-fry, brown rice
Wednesday: spaghetti squash
Thursday: broccoli and chicken casserole (using extra rice cooked on Tuesday)
Friday: energy couscous, carrot sticks
Saturday: OUT (church potluck - our contribution yet to be determined)

------------------------------------------------------------
* Yes, this is the chicken and squash intended for last Wednesday. The R's invited us to their homefor dinner and the vice-presidential debate on Thursday, so I moved "Crap" to Wednesday and held the chicken until today.

**This week's new recipe -- Indian potato-stuffed bread.

*** CRAP = Clean Refrigerator And Pantry. This week I will simply set out a selection of leftovers -- cold pasta, potato salad, tomato-cuke salad, squash, stuffing, aloo paratha, cake

Books on the Farm

Given their night time reading (The Little House Collection Box Set), our gardening projects and my own personal reading selections (How to Live on Almost Nothing and Have Plenty,Country Wisdom & Know-How, and The Omnivore's Dilemma), it is not surprising that the children would be interested in reading about farming right now.


Tractor : A simple text with full-color pen-and-ink drawings, Tractor follows a farmer and his machine through a full growing season. The drawings are full of detail and inspire conversation with preschoolers about tractors, plants, and the birds that live on a farm.

The Old Red Tractor : Originally written in German, The Old Red Tractor is a story about a young boy and his hand-me-down toy tractor. The tractor was his prize possession until one of his friends acquires a brand-new tractor with all of the bells and whistles. The story and illustrations depict European rural farm life, and the story teaches an important lesson about envy and contentedness.

Farm Tractors : The farm book for the gearhead in your household, Agent 002 loves the photographs in the book. The book includes some historical background, but is otherwise organized by manufacturer. The text is intended for a machine-obsessed adult, so we have used this book mainly for flipping through rather than reading aloud.

Inch by Inch: The Garden Song : The classic David Mallet song with accompanying illustrations. One of our all-time favorite books. This is frequently a nap time selection in our home.

Moo Moo, Brown Cow : Set to the tune of "Baa Baa Black Sheep," this sing-along picture book is a wonderful counting exercise. A cat explores the farm, counting all of the baby animals. A very good book for reviewing animal sounds and names with a toddler.

A Tuesday in Detail

I have been trying to write a detailed post about our preschool for weeks. Something like this or this.

As I have said many times, I consider our whole life an education, and am reticent to call one block of the day "preschool." The kids are involved in everything we do and are absorbing information and honing skills all of the time.

Nonetheless, we do have a few times set aside each day for academic and artistic activities. As a public service to my readers (and as a memento for me) I took notes on our activities this morning (Tuesday).

Our day is loosely structured by task (see here for our full routine). Other than assuring that Agent 002 gets on his bus, we do not worry about what time it is throughout the day. In fact, I neither wear a watch nor have a clock visible for most of the day, so none of this is precisely timed.

I start my day packing lunches and serving breakfast. The Agents dress themselves and sit down as they are ready to eat; the Cousins arrive just before 7 ready to eat breakfast. This morning I pulled out a bag of waffles that I had frozen a month ago. As each person was ready to eat I popped a waffle or two in the toaster.

Agent 002 is usually up around 6 with me; for only the second time this year I had to shake him awake at 7 to make sure that he was ready in time for his 7:25 bus. Although he was still drowsy as he dipped his waffle sticks in honey, he was outside in plenty of time.

Since I was alone for nearly an hour this morning, I got the chance to make lunches and mix up bread dough before the breakfast rush began. This really helped me to have a much calmer than average morning.

The girls play while I tidy the kitchen. This morning they built a "doghouse" by draping towels from the mudroom bench. Agent 004 walked her dog (Cousin F) though the house. Cousin P alternated between playing with them and hugging my leg. When he joins in, the girls call him the "neighbor."

Once I have completed my morning routine, the girls clean up their toys. This is usually just before 8am.

Ten minutes later (or 15 if one of the girls balks as she did this morning) the four of us convene in the Red Room. Cousin P sits on my lap and Agent 004 and Cousin F sit on either side of me on their mats (repurposed baby blankets). We start with the sign of the cross, then a sung prayer. Cousin F chose the prayer this morning so we sang six verses of "He's Got the Whole World in His Hands." After the standard first verse we sang "He has the flowers and trees in his hands, "He has Baby P in his hands," "He has F, 004 in his hands," etc.. They really enjoy having their names in the song, and I hope that they get a sense that God cares for them. Cousin P babbled along with the song and gesticulated madly this morning.

He went off and played in the pool of rice while F, 004 and I looked at the calendar together. I reminded them that yesterday was Monday, September 29th, then asked them to tell me today's date. They told me that today was "Tuesday," but it took some prodding (and counting it all out) for Agent 004 to tell me that "30" is the number after 29. She then noticed that there is no "31" in September, so we looked ahead to the October page in the calendar.

After the calendar, we cut one link (#32) off of the paper chain that shows how many days until Halloween. It was Cousin F's turn to cut. She then taped the link onto her wrist as a bracelet.

Agent 004 led us in a singing, pointing rendition of the ABC song. She used a straw filled with rice as her pointer, and did a perfect job of matching her pointing to the letter we were singing. Cousin P came over and pointed at various objects on the wall as we sang.

This seems like a lengthy routine as I typed it, but in reality only 5 or 6 minutes had elapsed since we sat down for prayer. After this group time, the kids sit down for table work.

I strapped Cousin P into a booster seat and gave him a small bowl of paint (flour, salt and water), a paintbrush, and a piece of construction paper. This is one of his favorite activities so he happily sploshed for about 4 minutes before I removed the paints and gave him wooden blocks to stack. This activity was much shorter-lived (90 seconds?), but I let him sit for an additional two minutes while I worked with the girls at the table.

We pulled out individual blocks from the bucket and identified the shapes together. Agent 004 then did two worksheets applying her knowledge of three-dimensional shapes. Other than confusing spheres and cylinders, she knows them very well. Cousin F redid a lesson in her Kumon Tracing book.

Cousin P played happily in the rice pool for the next twenty minutes. He poured rice through toilet paper tubes into a metal coffee can, giggling at the metallic tinkle each time. He also shook a peanut butter jar that one of he other children had filled with rice. He would occasionally move his feet back and forth to hear the rice rubbing against the bottom of the pool. Sensory bliss.

For floor time, Cousin F dressed the lacing bear (Melissa and Doug Lacing Bear Dress-Up), then moved acorns from one basket to another with a spoon. She attempted a shoe lacing activity (Alex One, Two, Tie My Shoe), but put it away quickly in frustration and asked me to set up cornmeal tracing.

Agent 004 did a dinosaur puzzle, then stacked blocks into a wall. She tried to remove one block at a time Jenga style, but was getting frustrated because the whole stack would fall. It took her a while to figure out that this only works if the stacking is with overlapped layers. She wanted to use the Brown Bear felt set, but balked at cleaning up the blocks first. By the time she had cleaned up it was time for our morning activity. In fact, F and P had already gone into the living room, and she was only allowed to join them once the blocks were cleaned up.

Our schedule says that our morning activity on Tuesdays is housecleaning. What this really means is that the kids watch a short movie while I try to catch up on laundry. We popped in Cousin F's library selection from last week (Teletubbies - Bedtime Stories and Lullabies). I dumped the clean laundry on the loveseat and folded while they watched, danced, and occasionally grabbed something that I had just folded. I did not finish, but I did manage to go through 2/3 of Mount Washmore. In case anyone was wondering, the Teletubbies are INANE! This is the first (and probably last) time we have ever watched one of these videos.

As the video was winding down I heated up a pot of homemade chicken soup with rice. We ate that and crackers for lunch. As soon as I had finished my serving I started reading our lunchtime book selections -- Chicken Soup with Rice: A Book of Months (of course) as well as Leaves. It was very cool that Agent 004 noticed when I inadvertently skipped a page. She did not know which month comes between March and May, but she did know that one was missing.

Like usual, Cousin P started to doze in his high chair while I read. The girls are responsible for cleaning the kitchen while put Cousin P down for nap. Don't be too impressed by this fact -- after they bring their own bowls over to the counter, one of them wipes down the placemats with a wet rag while the other one puts away stray items. They don't accomplish a whole lot, but I think it is good for them to have some responsibility commensurate with their age.

Once the kitchen was cleaned we messed it up again. Our after lunch activity is often unstructured art, but today we made two small pans of peach cobbler. This project was inspired by the appearance of two cans of peaches in heavy syrup in our pantry. I just couldn't stomach giving them something so sweet as "fruit," so I figured that we might as well use it in a dessert.

The girls chopped butter while I collected the other ingredients. I tried to save time by creaming the butter and sugar right in the baking dishes. Not such a good idea, especially if a three-year-old is manning the mixer. I'll need to wash the butter off of the walls and cabinets tonight....

After a potty break, the girls went upstairs to their beds. They each grabbed a stack of books, then settled in as I sang three songs -- A Place in the Choir, Puff the Magic Dragon, and Red is the Rose. As I type this both Cousins are sleeping soundly, but Agent 004 is playing quietly with the Littlest Pet Shop in her room. I take that back -- Cousin F is awake but playing quietly in her bed. I went upstairs once to get her out of Agent 004's room.

Quiet time is my time, but there is a lot of work that I should be doing. Not typing up the nitty-gritty details of my life, but living it. I did manage to run the dishwasher as well as bake the peach cobblers and a loaf of rye bread while I have been typing, but I did not make the salsa or tortillas for dinner like I should have, nor did I finish folding the laundry. Oh, well.

I freed the girls around 2pm. I brought all four laundry baskets up to put clothes away as well as set out pajamas and clothes for tomorrow. P woke up while I was working and I brought him up to play. They chased each other through the three connected bedrooms. I admonished P for opening the drawer to Agent 002's private toy stash several times.

We came downstairs and had snack. The girls cut bananas, feeding some to P as he requested it. "DAT!" We also had pretzels. I put clothes into tomorrow drawers and emptied the dishwasher while they ate.Cousin F and Agent 004 went outside (my only involvement in their preperation was to spray the bug spray). They pretended to put leaves back on tree like in lunchtime story Leaves. P was still chomping away at snack. I met Agent 002's bus. He waved a note from his teacher in front of me. She said that he worked very hard in school today and did a wonderful job in his handwriting book. He ate snack, I cleaned up snack, 002 went outside, I got P ready and dumped the compost.

I worked on vegetable beds while the kids played on swings. This is one of those projects that would probably only take 20 minutes if I did it undisturbed, but I have been working on it for the past two weeks. P splashed in abandoned flower pots and dug holes in the garden.

Two of the kids were getting out of control, so I took a break to read Reader's Digest on the glider swing knowing full well that I would not be alone for long. Agent 002 pulled his reading books out of his bag and read us a book (This is Pickles). The girls LOVE when he reads to us.

I rolled up one of the garden hoses, interrupted 437 times to direct P away from the front of the house. I really need a fence.....

Agent 002 started spearing leaves with a stick. He called them marshmallows. Then he built a fire ring out of stones, filled it with logs and pretended to roast marshmallows. The girls joined him and admonished P when he got too near, "No! It's hot!"

They went back on swings. Gnats were something fierce. Even with coating of bug spray I could see bites on Agent 002's face. I later realized that one intrepid gnat had climbed inside of my shirt to bite my upper arm.

My sister arrived around 4:45. We went inside with her to update my calendar with some of her schedule changes and to get her a peach cobbler to bring home.

The Agents continued to play outside while I started dinner. They came in a few minutes later to watch Curious George on PBS.

George ended (as far as they know there are two George stories each day. I have not lied, but have selectively withheld the information that there are in fact four stories each afternoon). I was still working on dinner. Agent 004 pretended to be a be a ghost and chased Agent 002 through the house. Then she noticed me shucking corn and wanted to join in. Agent 002 was disappointed that I had no more ears for him to work on.

Once the corn was in the pot, the Agents went back to their play, this time taking care of their babies. They wrapped Baby Pink Bear and Grover blankets and pushed them through the house in doll strollers. Agent 004 "read" them a few books. At one point Agent 004 told me that she needed to go to a meeting and left her baby with me. "Grammy, I am going to a meeting, you take care of my baby."

Mr warillever came home as I was finishing the salsa. At this point (5:35) I decided to forgo making tortillas from scratch for a 6pm dinner, and emptied a half bag of corn chips into a bowl instead. I really should have been working instead of blogging this afternoon. The corn chips were a fine accompaniment for refried beans and salsa anyway. The cobbler was very good.

During dinner mr warillever told us about the new cases he is working on. Agent 002 told us about his playground escapades and made sure that mr warillever read the wonderful note he brought home from school.

The Agents cleared the table. Mr warillever went downstairs to do some work on a heating vent. Agent 002 took a shower independently while I swept the kitchen, mudroom and back hall. Agent 004 put away stray objects from around the kitchen, then sang along with the Fridge Phonics and paged through some of the books in the book basket.

I cleaned the bathroom while Agent 004 took a bath. Agent 002 played with the Word Whammer. He finally seems to understand that putting a vowel in the middle is the easiest way to build a 3-letter word. He even sounded out a few of the words before the machine read them to him.

Mr warillever brough the Agents upstairs for book club. I scooped lumps from cat litter, brought the garbage and recycling to barn, then sat down at the computer to jot down the second half of this post.

My day is not complete yet, though. I still need to fold a few more loads of laundry, find all of the library books to be returned tomorrow, and take a shower. Hope to be upstairs by 11.

In reality I got upstairs at 11:35, then read (The Omnivore's Dilemma) for the next 45 minutes. All in all a very good day.

Dinner This Week

	Sunday	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday
Dinner	out	eggplant parm subs, spinach salad	bean burritos, corn on the cob, peach cobbler	roasted chicken, acorn squash, roasted potatoes	CRAP*	pasta primavera	picnic 4 bean salad, crackers, apples
Bread	---	French	rye, wheat tortillas	dinner rolls	honey wheat	French	-----

*CRAP = Clean Refrigerator And Pantry = creative leftovers. Heather of Home Ec 101 calls this "CORN" (clean out refrigerator night), but I think that my term is much more accurate.

A Party for a Princess

We believe in civilized celebrations at our home.

This was Agent 004's birthday tea.


Refined.

Then, on the following Saturday we invited the barbarians for cake and a pinata.

Here is C beating the unicorn senseless.

Look at the hordes swarming the candy!

Here is what was left of the poor pinata once her brother got a club to it. Headless unicorn.

Happy (belated) birthday, Baby Girl!

Updated Book Basket

...but no book post today.

My husband is hogging the computer, or rather, he is working from home today.

There are some really good ones this week, so I hope I get the chance to tell you about them later.

The Things a Four Year Old Notices

...but no one else does.

1. All of her aunts live in towns that begin with "W." She has six aunts in four towns in three states.
   
2. The four birthdays in our immediate family are evenly distributed among the seasons. On the first day of fall she said, "It was just my birthday in the summer and now it is fall so it will be your birthday and then it will be Papa's birthday in the winter. It is a long time until Agent 002's birthday in the spring but then it will be almost my birthday again."

I would have never realized either of these factoids. What would I ever do without her?

What's on My Mind

I try to spend 15 minutes per day decluttering.

Today I am trying to get rid of all the thoughts bouncing around in my head.

We'll call it a to-do list

House

• Figure out what we own and where it is -- Inventory
  
• Organize kids clothes and shoes in attic
• Set down old rugs to hold in heat
• Pull out front hall closet
• Move family book shelves from Agent 004's room
• Organize books in new home
• Set up twin size bed for Agent 004
  
• Bring down adult winter clothes
• Figure out what I need for kids' winter clothes
• Boots -- Size 10 and 13/1
• Snowpants Sm. and Medium
• Ski jackets
  
• Long sleeve shirts -- Youth S/M (Agent 002)
• hats/mittens/scarves (probably sufficient supply)
  
• Figure out rooming arrangements for future child/ren
• Pull dead wiring from basement ceiling
  

Yard and Garden

• set out logs to mark next year's vegetable beds
• carry over decomposed leaves
• pull weeds from between blackberry bushes
• 5 year plan for patio/flower garden
• flower beds around edge
• level center for picnic table
• choose hardy species b/c snow drops from roof
• window behind stove
• path from back door
  
• trellis to "finish" back porch
  

Preschool

• refill sensory rice pool
• set out fall goals
• see how we did with summer goals
  
• draw up "schedule" for Red Room time
• plan "curriculum" for Agent 004
• organize shelves so that girls can choose own activities
  

Misc

• Go over Thanksgiving Dinner plan
• Find a second whole grain sandwich bread recipe (honey-wheat getting old)
• Christmas present list
• Plan for some homemade gifts
• Inventory freezer for pantry challenge
• Plan full month with no groceries but milk, eggs, and fresh fruit
• Find out when local ski sales are (Sizes 10 and 13/1)
  

This list isn't half as bad as I expected. Let me get cracking on that.

Hard

I've got a hard road to travel
And a rough rough way to go.
Said it's a hard road to travel
And a rough rough way to go.
But I can't turn back,
My heart is fixed,
My mind's made up,
I'll never stop,
My faith will see, see me through.

-------Jimmy Cliff-------

It's the hard-knock life for us
It's the hard-knock life for us
No one cares for you a smidge
When your in an orphanage
It's the hard-knock life
It's the hard-knock life
It's the hard-knock life!
-----Annie-----*

Life is hard anyway you cut it
Life is sweet like a berry from a tree
Life is temptation, baby, every single day
Life is hard

Life is funny, I dont mean ha-ha
Its not always sunny when it needs to be
Life is frightening, nothing lasts forever
Life is hard
----- John Mellencamp-----

This week's unplugged prompt had me humming a tune, and it wasn't a pleasant one. There is so much hard in life, why would I want to add some extra hardship to our lives?

Or did that mean hard, like explaining why people have belly buttons, but frogs and chickens do not?**

Oh wait! Maybe Mom Unplugged meant "not soft." That's it! In which case, I will tell you how we spent our Friday afternoon -- working on tactile discrimination. The goal is to find the hard objects hidden among the softer base material.

The classic tactile discrimination exercise is to hide small toys in a bucket of rice. The older child can try to find pennies in a gob of Theraputty. Or, you could set four small children free in the garden and ask them to dig up the potatoes. It is something like finding a needle in a haystack, but a lot more fun.

The children dug and dug. And built mud castles and trenches. And dug some more. After twenty minutes I had a ransacked garden, four muddy children, and a bowlful of potatoes.***

After a "silly shower"**** and dry clothes we boiled up those spuds and had a pre-dinner treat. That is my idea of "unplugged" fun.

Check out Mom Unplugged to see what hard things everyone else did.
------------------------------------------------------------
* I've been trying not to sing this song, but it constantly comes to mind. I often sing responses to particularly ridiculous behavior. Whenever the "Not Fairs" start flying, this song immediately comes to mind. It is right about the word "smidge" when I remember how completely inappropriate it would be to sing this to a child who lived in an orphanage once-upon-a-time. Even if (especially since) there were people there who really did care more than a smidge about the kids in their care.

** I think I did pretty well explaining about umbilical cords and eggs. How many four year olds even ask about things like that, never mind comprehend?

*** Don't be too impressed by the bounty of our garden -- they found about two pounds -- but do be astounded by the frugality. The "seed" potatoes came from a bag that my brother accidentally left to sprout in the back of his pantry last winter.

**** Silly shower = a fully clothed shower. For both modesty and mud removal. Fortunately our (only) bathtub is just inside the back door.

We're Coming into My Season

I love fall.

It is undeniably the most beautiful time of the year in this area. Our yard will soon be awash in glorious reds and yellows.


The morning frost puts a glaze on everything.

The weather is perfect -- going outside is just a matter of pulling on a sweater. No sunscreen or bugspray or mittens or boots. Fresh crisp air. The outside temperature is 38 degrees right now, but by noon it should get up into the 60s. Perfect for a stroll. Or my brother's 40th birthday party (which is where I'll be).

And it is my season:

You Belong in Fall

Intelligent, introspective, and quite expressive at times... You appreciate the changes in color, climate, and mood that fall brings Whether you're carving wacky pumpkins or taking long drives, autumn is a favorite time of year for you

What Season Are You?

Books!

Check out the comments to read Julie's take on Mercer Mayer, and mine on the Berenstains.

Remember when I used to tell you about books every Friday?

I forgot too.

Take a peek over to the left (It's okay -- I'll wait while you click through from your feed reader) and you'll see that I actually updated the book basket.

We've been reading lots of Eric Carle and Mercer Mayer with a bit of Angelina Ballerina thrown in for good measure.

I am trying to introduce more poetry. Eric Carle's Animals Animals is a great start. I have a few more out from the library now that I will try to review next week.


Cousin F is currently Angelina obsessed. I let her choose one title per week from the library. Thus far we have read:


Next week we may try out

The Closest We Get to Homemade

I might have mentioned that reading all of these overacheiver Mom blogs makes me feel a wee bit inadequate once in a while. Especially when I read about all of this craftiness and homemade goodness going around in the world. I do not know how to sew, I do not know how to knit, and my artistic sensibility was stunted somewhere around age seven.

But I did make my daughter a birthday present.

Sort of.

I found this doll crib at a yard sale for $5. It was dusty, dingy, and a bit dull, but I knew how much my baby girl would love it.
So I washed it up, sanded it down, and painted every nook and cranny.
Then I fashioned a mattress out of an old foam cushion covered in a pillow case. I "sewed" it up with two safety pins turned in.
Not bad for a less-than-crafty mom!

500 Word Autobiography

My name is reprehriestless warillever. I am 30 years old, mother to Agent 002 and Agent 004, and wife to mr warillever. The four of us live with our cat Janice in a small New Hampshire village.

I am the youngest of my parents’ five children. My siblings are 6, 9, 11 and 15 years older than me; in many ways my oldest siblings were more like a second set of parents than an older brother and sister. Now that we are all adults it is funny how the age gap has diminished. We all live locally and see each other frequently; my oldest sister has two children younger than ours that spend their weekdays at our house.

We also see my parents frequently. They are very active in their retirement and spend many of their days visiting their six young grandchildren. They have been married to each other for 47 years and obviously love each other very much.

Looking back on it, I had an idyllic childhood. It was an urban neighborhood, but I could ride my Big Wheel tricycle in our yard or explore the large park behind our house. Our house was always the center of activity for entire neighborhood. My mother ran a small in-home daycare, so there were always plenty of children to play with. My older brother’s friends would come over on summer nights to play whiffle ball in a natural replica a of Fenway Park, replete with bases, floodlights, a deep right field fence and its very own Green Monster – a tall maple tree in short-left field.

I loved school. Our parish Catholic school was a few blocks away, and I walked there everyday with my older sister or friends. As a teenager I got a scholarship to attend a prep school, and from there I was off the Ivy League where I majored in Russian language and International Relations.

The year after graduation I returned to hometown as a volunteer with the local immigrant population while mr warillever (whom I had met in college) moved to Vermont to teach. I followed six months later and we spent three years teaching social studies in a rural high school. We then moved to Indiana for graduate school – mr warillever studied law at Notre Dame while I worked in Notre Dame libraries and earned a Masters in Library Science from Indiana University.

While we were in Indiana, we started the process to adopt two children from Russia. Two years later – just as we were in transit from Indiana to our new home in New Hampshire – we adopted a three year old boy and a one-year old girl. Agent 002 is now six and started first grade this year. Agent 004 recently turned four.

I stay home fulltime with the children. We spend our days playing, learning, and hugging. As Agent 002 will recite faithfully, “Hugs first, then work, and we can play after that.” It is amazing to see them grow and discover every day.

Happy 500th-ish post everyone! It has been great sharing our adventures with you.

Wordle

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow!

We built our first snowman of the season yesterday.

Not our actual snowman

The weather is beginning to turn colder here, but we don't have any snow yet. Just two kids who like doing the unexpected when given the opportunity.

We took a wonderful roadtrip along the Massachusetts North Shore last night, stopping in Newburyport for a fish dinner and Seabrook, New Hampshire to build our "frozen" friend.

What I get for Being a Good Girl

As promised, I have been turning Reader and Gmail off when I am not using them in order to reduce the temptation to check them throughout the day.

There have been some benefits --

1. I have had more focused time with the children. We have read more books and had less misbehavior at transition times.
   
2. I have gotten a lot of things done around the house --
   
1. The Red Room is almost ready to be used in a self-service manner for Montessori-like preschool,
2. The wood is stacked up and ready to go for winter.
   
3. We finally mailed of our foster care application.
   
3. Using times of temptation as an opportunity, I have been praying more.
   
4. I am more conscious of appreciating the moment and contented with the life I live.
   

But.....I still have five loads of laundry to be folded and I really miss all of my online friends. I would try to catch up this weekend, but we are hosting a dinner for 18 (!) tomorrow night and I still need to prepare for Sunday's religious education class.

So look for my comments on your blogs during my designated 15 minutes on Monday! Or Tuesday or Wednesday or so.....

The Lamest Unplugged Post

So lame, in fact, that I won't even include photos.

Not at all. The Agents created very cute projects, but this is a lame post because I have no photos -- my camera and camera still won't communicate, and that handy-dandy little external card reader is broken. I bent a pin putting the card in upside. I can't even blame the kids!

The unplugged theme is soft. I asked the Agents what they would like to make -- they decided on kittens and lambs (so far, so good -- they know what soft is). We then chose soft materials. Both Agents chose cotton balls. I chose pink sparkly feathers.

Agent 002 drew a kitten, then glued cotton balls all over its body. He called it "Snowball."

Agent 004 chose pink blue paper (the sky), shredded green scraps and glued those onto the background as grass. She glued many cotton balls onto the paper. A Mama sheep, a baby lamb, a cousin sheep, and a neighbor sheep. And then she moved the gluey mass all over the paper as the sheep socialized. By the end she was sticky and her "art" was destroyed, but she had a grand ole' time.

I made a pink flamingo with glittery pink feathers. Maybe I am glad that you can't see our work...

Two Questions and an Advertisement

Shannon is hosting a backwards WFMW today at Rocks in My Dryer. I'll take advantage of this opportunity to tap the wisdom of the internets.

1. Read-Aloud Suggestions? My husband reads to the children from a novel every night. Thus far they have read Charlotte's Web, Stewart Little, The Trumpeter Swan, Doctor Dolittle, The Just So Stories, and they are currently finishing up the Little House series. We haven't decided what to tackle next. Any suggestions?
   
   
2. Preschool Prayer Songs? We begin "preschool" every day with a prayer. I have only just realized that a song is a good way to do this and get the kids really involved. Cousin F in particular gets into hand motions and spontaneous riffs on well-known songs. We have been singing "He Has the Whole World in His Hands" and "This is the Day." Does anyone know any good Christian songs that a 1, 3 and 4 yo would be able to sing?
   
   
3. Photographs of Nuns? Sr. Mary Martha and her cohert of sisters are organizing a Nun Beauty No Contest to show all of the good work that nuns do around the world. Sr. Mary Martha asked me to advertise this for her, and since when can I say no to a nun? Even in my 1980s nearly secular Catholic school we learned that much! You can read more about the rules (or lack thereof) at her blog.
   

I Hate Blogs

I have already told you that I love blogs, but now let me tell you why I hate them:

1. Blogs take up time. Even with a feed-reader, even skimming the nonessential, reading blogs takes time.
   
   With always connected high-speed internet, I am tempted to read throughout the day, pulling me away from the children that need my full attention.
   
   
2. Blogs make me feel inept. Why isn't my garden as productive as Kate's or Mary's? Why isn't my house decorated as well as Heidi's? Why aren't I crafty like Jo or Michelle? Why don't we have serene preschool sessions like Stephanie? How come I don't write as well as Shannon or Lora Lynn?
   
   Melissa doesn't let her daughter eat Goldfish becuase of artificial colors....am I a poor parent for allowing them?
   
   Tanya painted a mural in her son's room. Why haven't I done anything nice like that for my kids?
   
   Julie is doing such a good job teaching her son core values. Are we doing enough?
   
   The Pisecos have children near our kids' ages, and they are doing in-depth history lessons. Should we?

Is my reading making me dissatisfied with the wonderful life I have? Is it taking time away from what matters? For the very reason that I stopped reading women's magazines, for the very reason that my children do not watch commercial television, maybe I should stop reading blogs.

Instead of cutting them out completely, I have a plan to moderate my internet reading.

1. Read fewer blogs. I currently subscribe to 108 feeds in Google Reader. By October 1st, I will reduce this to 50 including news feeds.
2. Read blogs only during designated times. There is no reason to have Google Reader open throughout the day. When my 15 minutes of computer time is up, I will close the Reader window to reduce the temptation to check.
   
3. Be content. I will reread and take to heart Julie's lessons on contentment for her son. I am who I am, my kids are who they are, and we are very blessed to be living the lives that we are.
   

So if you don't see as many comments from me, now you know why...

Labor Day's Work

Mr warillever had the day off, so he spent it stacking wood.


We could watch him work all day...