Random Ramblings and Deep Thoughts

Chirp, chirp...

2011-05-25T10:03:00.000-05:00

Can you hear the crickets? Poor neglected blog hasn't been updated for almost a year. Turns out that has really left some people in the dark about what's up with our family. Like, the fact that we're now a homeschooling family. Or that we just spent a month in Germany. And some of our own family didn't even know! So, I have resolved to revive the old blog. I've been wanting to, anyway, as it has been a great way to keep a journal of sorts. Now I have another excuse. Thanks for the extra incentive, Melissa. :o) Watch for a series of posts over the next few days. I'm going to probably back-date a lot, so I can still have my life here in chronological order. Can't put 2010 into 2011 now, can you?

Garden Goodness

2010-06-28T09:13:00.000-05:00

Despite an unusually hot month of June, very little rain, and an abundance of bugs, our garden has been blessing us with lots of yummy produce. The zucchini frenzy came to an end early in the month, when the squash vine borers finally managed to take down the plants. The green zucchini produced significantly more than the yellow ones, so I think I'm going to stick with the green ones from here on out. I got about a dozen zucchini off each of those plants, whereas the yellow ones produced maybe half that. Either way, more than enough zucchini to last me for a while now, haha. I may try another planting mid-August, when I get back from my trip to Germany, since temps stay nice and warm into November here. By then, I may develop an appetite for zucchini again. :p I have also picked 8 butternut squashes now, and both plants have actually set a second crop, so I've got 4 more out there that just need to ripen for a couple more weeks, and then should be ready to pick, as well. They turned out really nice, and I'm amazed at how well the plants have withstood the squash vine borer. There are several places where I could see the borers got into the vines, but the plants just manage to grow thicker vines, and it doesn't seem to bother them much. Thumbs up for butternut squash, it's definitely going to become a staple in my summer garden. The tomato plants have been attacked by leaf footed bugs and stink bugs. The larger tomatoes are also suffering from blossom end rot, apparently a sign of calcium deficiency. I've still been able to harvest a lot of little grape tomatoes, which are delicious, and enough of the large ones to be happy about. It's definitely been a learning experience, though. I'm planning on working gypsum into the soil, as well as adding a bunch more compost before planting again for the Fall. Hopefully that'll help. I also read that garlic helps repel a lot of the bugs, so I may try planting some garlic for next year. The bell pepper plants look gorgeous now, they seem to be the only plants to really LOVE the heat. I've already picked quite a few, and will probably continue to harvest throughout the summer. Cucumbers are now producing like crazy, too! I pick 3 or 4 every single day, and they are delicious! I planted Diva, which is an all female hybrid that doesn't need pollination, so the crop is plentiful. My green beans gave me two good harvests, but then it got too hot, so they are gone now. The onions are about ready to harvest, too. They didn't get very big, but I think it was because I planted them too late in the season, and it just got too hot. I may try them again next Spring, we'll see. All in all, I'd call this Spring/Summer garden a great success. Or should I say, a yummy success! :o)

Happy Birthday, Tyler!

2010-06-24T09:07:00.000-05:00

I can't believe my first baby turned 10 years old today. It seems strange to say I became a mommy for the first time a whole decade ago. Time flies! He has been such a joy to have in our family, and shows amazing patience with his younger siblings. They couldn't have hoped for a better big brother. Love you, Tyler!

Boy/Girl Twins!

2010-06-22T09:01:00.000-05:00

Our family has grown by two!

Meet Lily

And Max

The kids love them, and these little kittens have been amazingly patient with the kids' constant prodding and poking - um, I mean, petting and loving them. :p

Garden at the end of May

2010-05-30T08:54:00.000-05:00

Here is the garden at the end of May. Everything is growing beautifully, and zucchini harvest is in full swing. Tomatoes are growing like crazy, and the butternut squash is doing amazingly well on the trellis.

Olympic Day at Gymnastics

2010-05-28T08:43:00.000-05:00

Lest you think Bryan is the only one getting gym time on this blog, here is a short video of Kaylee showing off everything she has learned so far.

Rain Gutter Regatta

2010-05-26T08:46:00.000-05:00

For cub scouts this year, they decided to do a rain gutter regatta instead of a pinewood derby. It was way fun! The boat making process was much less involved than the car making process, which is a huge positive in my book. :p The boys had a lot of fun, and nobody hyperventilated, so I'd call it a success. Tyler even won in his age group!

Piano Recital

2010-05-14T08:39:00.002-05:00

The boys finished their first few months of piano lessons, and got to have their first recital. Very informal, and very fun! As only parents of children learning to play the piano are able to appreciate, I am sure. :p Here they are, showing off their mad skillz.

Gardening Fun!

2010-05-12T09:00:00.003-05:00

With the really wet and cold winter we had, I didn't get to do as much gardening as I had the year before. I was a bit sad, but what can you do? I did have a whole bunch of carrots, and kale. But that's about it. With less time spent actually gardening, I had more time to spend planning my summer garden, and decided I wanted to expand. Unfortunately, down here you can't just go out and start tilling the ground. A little more planning and work is required, as well as a bit more money to get everything set up. When my mom and uncle were here for a visit in March, I decided to put them to work and help me build a raised bed. It turned out quite nicely.

This is it, March 26th. Seeds planted! Having more space also allowed me to set aside half of the old bed for asparagus plants my friend gave me for my birthday. The roots all took, and I'm looking forward to fresh asparagus, maybe next Spring, but definitely the year after that!

April 3rd. First few seeds are beginning to sprout. My tomato and bell pepper seedlings are still in the little greenhouse at this point, trying to grow a bit stronger before going outside.

April 22nd. Coming along! The tomatoes survived the transfer, and are growing well.

May 8th. Obviously, everything is doing wonderfully. We harvested the first few zucchinis! There are a bunch of little tomatoes, too, though those will take a while longer before they're ready to harvest.

For this summer, I have three green zucchini plants, three yellow zucchinis, three tomato plants (pink and purple, we'll see how they turn out!), some green beans, cilantro, and two butternut squash plants that I'm growing up a trellis. We also raised the old bed up a bit higher with another layer of bricks, and it has the asparagus, two cucumbers, two bell peppers, and a bunch of red onions. There's also parsley, which is still there from last Fall, and some green onions. And the one kale plant, which I need to pull out... Here's hoping for a good harvest!

Texas South State - Michael Sims Memorial

2010-05-11T09:00:00.000-05:00

Bryan had his last gymnastics meet for the season on April 25th. It was the Texas South State Meet, and ended up being the best meet of the season for him. Dave and I were watching and comparing the videos from his first and last meets, and it's amazing to see how much progress he has made since January. It's fun to watch him enjoy the sport so much, and to see his dedication and hard work.

More March Fun

2010-05-10T12:30:00.005-05:00

I know it's May and all, but March was such a fun month at our house, I wanted to put up a few more pictures.

The kids love jumping on the trampoline, and I decided to go out one day and take a few pictures.

While my mom and uncle were visiting, we also took a trip to the beach. It's hard to believe that it was my first time going since we moved here nearly two years ago. I love the beach! And it's only half an hour away. We really should go more often.

Birthday Month!

2010-03-30T14:16:00.006-05:00

March was Birthday month at our house. We started out with Kaylee on the 16th.

Next came Elly, on the 19th.

Finally, we celebrated Bryan's birthday on the 23rd.

A fun time was had by all! As well as lots of presents, and lots of cake. :o)

Garland Classic

2010-03-04T17:13:00.003-06:00

Yes, another gymnastics video. Doesn't look a whole lot different from the last one, though if you look closely, you'll notice the ring routine looks much better, and he's added a handstand to his parallel bar routine. :o) Enjoy!

Januray, February, March...

2010-03-01T21:45:00.003-06:00

March! Already? Is it just me or does February always seem too short? ha Life has been crazy around here. I'd blame the lack of blogging on that, but mostly I've been suffering from blogitis. Also known as blog writer's block. Or something like that. :p Since I do keep this as sort of a journal, I figured I'd better sit down and write, well, something. Since enough has happened during the last few weeks to fill a blog post. During the last two months:

we attended four gymnastics meets, two of which were out of town (San Antonio and Dallas). Of those four, Bryan won all-around three times, and got one 2nd place. He is one amazing little boy.
Tyler played a lot of basketball. His team wasn't all that great, but he had fun. It's a good thing he's not competitive, he doesn't mind losing. He just likes to play. :o)
I turned 32. 32! I still feel like I'm 23. Well, except a little more mature, maybe. :p
my dad got diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, and has begun chemotherapy. He has a long road ahead of him. We're hopeful the chemo will stop further growth and spreading of the tumor. Being so far away from my parents has made dealing with this a very strange experience. I was in denial for a very long time. Now I'm just having a hard time with the fact that I can't be there. Contemplating a trip this summer, we'll see.
our to-do list has kept on growing. I keep adding more things than I'm taking off. Help? haha
it has been unusually cold and rainy, so not much has been happening in the way of gardening. It's sad, I had such a nice winter garden last year. I've now started a few plants indoors to hopefully plant by the end of this month. We're actually planning on putting in a second raised bed, so I should have a lot more space for planting stuff this year. Yay!
Tyler and Bryan have been enjoying their piano lessons. They are both doing quite well. I'm a bit jealous. Maybe I should sign myself up, too. :p
Kaylee has been making huge improvements in her gymnastics. Things are really starting to click for her, it's fun to watch. I just hope she'll be content with recreational gymnastics, can't afford two kids on teams!
Elly has finally started showing some interest in talking. She's now up to about a dozen words, and a handful of signs (I'm not consistent with the signing, I think she'd use more if I was). I'm contemplating having her evaluated for speech delay. Her receptive language is excellent, she understands both English and German perfectly, follows directions, etc. It's the speech part I'm getting a bit worried about. Will address that with our doctor when I take her in for her check-up, and we'll go from there.

Well, I think that about covers it. I have a bunch of pictures from Christmas I've been wanting to upload, hopefully I'll get around to it before Easter rolls around. :o)

Ricky Deci Invitational - Bryan won!

2010-01-09T14:16:00.006-06:00

To make up for a total lack of blog updating, here's something way fun for you to watch. At least if you're into gymnastics. :p Bryan had his first big real meet yesterday. It was really fun to watch him, and he did great. He got 4 individual golds, 2 individual silvers, and the all-around gold in his age group. Way to go Bryan!

Snow!

2009-12-18T04:06:00.006-06:00

Dear Houston airport people,

this is what real snow looks like. Not the half inch dusting that ended up delaying my flight 21 hours. Seriously.

Sincerely,

Annoyed Mom who spent 9 hours sitting at the airport with two small children, only to make the hour long drive back home to spend another night at her own house...

Monday, Monday....

2009-11-23T17:18:00.005-06:00

We've been having a nice and busy day today. Kids are already off school, so we've been enjoying each other's company. Wilbert, a family friend who is currently living with us, got some gingerbread houses for the kids, and we decorated them this morning. The kids had a blast! So did I. I don't think I've ever decorated one before. We each had a little house, and we ended up making a little gingerbread village. Cute!

I actually spent most of the morning sitting on the couch with Elly. She has some bug and has been really sleepy all day. She also has a low grade fever. I hope it's a fleeting illness, since we have plans to go to Arkansas on Wednesday to spend Thanksgiving with Dave's brother's family...

Right now, Bryan is at gymnastics, and I just finished harvesting a bunch of produce from the garden. Exciting times! The garden is doing really well, actually. Today, I got green beans, kohlrabi, bell peppers, one little broccoli, and lettuce. Yum! I'm not sure about the broccoli, it didn't get very big, but it did look like it was ready to harvest. Don't know how the other plants are going to turn out, we'll see. For the green beans, this was actually the second round. I already picked quite a lot a couple of weeks ago, and made some yummy green bean soup. These ones I'm going to probably cut up, blanch, and then freeze, for more green bean soup later this winter. :o) The kohlrabi is very good and tender, we just eat it raw. The lettuce is excellent, too, and I'm happy we still have a few bell peppers out there! There aren't a whole lot left, and they don't grow all that big anymore, but they're nice for a snack. I have one kale plant out there this year, and that is growing nicely, too. The sugar snap peas are getting flowers, so we should have some snap peas to snack on soon! The carrots are growing nice and big, too, though they'll probably be a few more weeks. Carrots take a long time to grow... So there, my garden update! Just for you, Christie. ;o)

Journey in mothering

2009-11-16T20:49:00.005-06:00

I've been a mother for nearly a decade. A decade! That's a mighty long time. Well, to me, anyway. :o) During the last 10 years, I have learned a lot. Mothering has been a journey. I think the single most important thing that having children has taught me is to trust my instincts. Forget what the books say. I am the only expert when it comes to raising my children. Well, Dave is to some extend, but let's face it, I'm the one who spends the most time with them. :p When it comes to labels, I suppose I would fall under the category of what some call "attachment parenting". I think I prefer to call it "instinctive parenting". Over the years, I have learned to trust my own instincts enough to drop parenting practices that are often considered important, or convenient, or beneficial for fostering independence, or whatever. Take, for example, the cry-it-out approach to sleep training. There came a point where it just didn't feel right. While everyone seemed to be telling me that it was important for my children to learn to put themselves to sleep, it just didn't feel right to put them in a room, close the door, and let them scream for however long it took for total exhaustion to set in. Or for them to give up on you. So, sleep training is no longer practiced at our house. Sure, there are mornings I wake up wondering whether I ever even went to sleep, but ultimately, it's worth it to me. Another one of those practices that just "feels right" is allowing the kids to breastfeed past the age of one. What's so magical about the first birthday, anyway? Breastmilk certainly doesn't lose its nutritional value overnight, and I feel allowing the child to set the pace when it comes to weaning is beneficial in more ways than just nutrition. I think I have come to a point in life where I look at "mainstream" parenting practices, and I can't help but wonder why? Why are we in such a hurry to make kids grow up? Why do we think we need to teach them independence by sticking them in a crib in a dark room and making them scream when they're just a few months old? In many ways, trusting and following my instincts when it comes to mothering has been really liberating. It has removed a lot of stress from my life. Instead of looking at children as mini adults and expecting them to behave as such, I am learning to look at them and take them for who they are. I am learning to respect their needs, instead of forcing on them my perception of what their needs should be. It is an ongoing process, of course. Today, I know I am not the same person I was yesterday. I am constantly striving to be a better mother, and to be able to better help my children become the best they can be. Throughout this journey, I have had the priviledge of getting to know and learning from other mothers. I am so glad I have had the opportunity to make friends who are wonderful moms to their children, and who inspire me to do better, and be better. One of these mothers who is a true inspiration to me is Arianne. We only knew each other for a short time when we lived in Logan, but it has been wonderful to keep up with her through her blog, Still Parenting. She blogs about her own journey in mothering, in raising and teaching her children. I know it's going to be a good day when I open up my google reader and see a post from her. :o) My hope is that I will be able to continue to learn, to improve, and to get to know my children better each day. After all, they are the most important thing in my life, and raising them is the most important thing I will ever do.

20 Years

2009-11-09T21:45:00.003-06:00

November 9th, 1989 was a historic day. It was the day the Berlin Wall fell. Of course, the way to the German reunion wasn't just a single day occurrence, but the fall of the Wall became the symbol of freedom for the people of East Germany (and ultimately what was known as the East Block, several countries in central and eastern Europe that had been under Communist rule). It all started in the summer of '89, when Hungary decided to open up the border to Austria, and allowed East Germans to cross into Western territory. Later, the Czechs followed suit and began to allow East Germans to travel into West Germany. I was only 11 at the time, but I vividly remember watching the news, and seeing trains packed with people crossing into the "forbidden" land. Soon, people inside East Germany began to congregate and organize, and started up the "Monday Demonstrations". All of these events, as well as involvement from great foreign leaders on both sides of the Iron Curtain, ultimately led to the fall of the Berlin Wall, and subsequently the Communist government. Initially, my little 11 year old mind had a difficult time grasping the gravity of what was happening. In fact, I dare say most East Germans had difficulty grasping just what all of this would mean for them. Freedom, after all, came at a price. High unemployment rates (we're talking upward of 20% in some parts of East Germany), a struggling economy, and a continued rift between East and West are realities many Germans face to this day. Facing capitalism was, in many ways, a rude awakening for many people. Living under a Communist dictatorship was no easy lot, but neither is being slave to the cruel realities of a capitalist society. A realization many are still struggling with. Still, I believe the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall is cause for celebration, and hope for the continued effort on both sides of the now invisible wall to turn Germany back into a truly united country. :o)

First week - Success!

2009-11-08T22:01:00.002-06:00

I can't believe we already finished up the first week with the kids' chore charts! Overall, I think it went really well. Tyler totally loves the structure it gives him. Bryan is getting into it, as well. Kaylee still hasn't quite grasped the concept/point behind this whole idea, but she's getting there. She does enjoy putting up her stars, but I still have to remind her most of the time of what she needs to do and when she needs to do it. Hopefully she'll catch on as we continue. :o)

New record!

2009-11-06T21:26:00.003-06:00

Bryan set a new personal record this evening, when he managed to hold a handstand for 47 seconds. The kid never ceases to amaze me with his mad gymnastics skills. Every Friday, I go watch him during his practice, and every Friday I am blown away by what he is able to do (he goes on Tuesdays and Thursdays, too, but I don't get to stay and watch those days). He has such amazing control over his body, is incredibly strong, and he has great form, as well. The routines they practice for the meets are compulsory, meaning everyone does the same elements. Each apparatus also has a bonus option, and he actually performs all of his routines with the bonus. It's, well, amazing. He also set a personal record on the mushroom (the last apparatus on this little video) today. He managed to go around 5 times (and a half, he insists!). He keeps asking me to get him one for Christmas, so he can practice at home. I told him we don't have a money tree. :p Love that kid. :D

For your reading pleasure

2009-11-05T20:57:00.004-06:00

You may have already seen this one. If you're like me, it's in your google reader. It's hilarious! I will never look at cakes (especially on store display shelves) the same way again. :p

Cakewrecks

Seriously, check it out. It'll be worth your time, I promise. :D

The quest continues...

2009-11-04T21:29:00.003-06:00

The quest to become more organized, that is. I had a little system in place with the kids last year, over the summer, where we kept a sort of schedule of everything they needed to do each day, and the time they spent watching TV and playing computer. It worked quite well, but once school started, we abandoned the schedule and got back into our normal routine - of not having one. haha Of course, with 4 kids, life doesn't get any less busy. While I'm not a huge fan of too much structure, we were getting to the point where something had to be done. We were always busy busy busy, yet the kids seemed to magically find time to constantly bug me about playing the wii or computer or watching TV. Enough is enough, I said. Something had to be done. I've also been wanting to get myself more organized, and to waste less time (namely, on facebook...). So I decided I should get myself one of those awesome whiteboard calendars that you can write in each month. While at Target the other day, I went to look for one. That shopping trip ended up being a success all around. Not only did I find the kind of whiteboard calendar I was looking for, but I found these awesome chore charts with little star magnets, made just for kids! And some delicious artisan sourdough bread and Ritter Sport chocolate. Told you the shopping trip was a success. :p Anyway, I digress. I ended up getting each of the kids their own board (except Elly, she's too little). They love them! I've worked out the initial plan for getting important things done, earning time for electronic entertainment, and being accountable for time spent playing/watching said electronic entertainment. So far, so good! It's a work in progress, and I'm sure things are going to get changed around as time goes on. I'm just glad I've found something to hopefully cut down on the TV/wii/computer time, and help give the kids some sort of structure. We'll see how it works out over time. :o)

Halloween

2009-11-03T21:04:00.006-06:00

Better late than never, right? (And yes, I know I already missed a day for NaBloPoMo...) We had a pretty fun day Saturday. I'm not a huge fan of Halloween, to be honest. I had no idea what Halloween even was until a few years ago, and now it's spreading throughout the world like a wildfire (or so it seems). Globalization? Commercialization? Well, whatever the case may be, the kids do get excited for it, so I try to be nice and play along. I still refuse to spend $30 on a cheaply made costume, though, so we reuse, reduce, recycle at our house. :p Tyler was a ninja (in his karate costume, so creative, I know!), Bryan was wolverine for the second (or third?) time in a row, Kaylee wore a tulle skirt we bought at a silent auction to benefit the young women at our church, and a pair of fairy (butterfly, whatever) wings she got at a friend's birthday party, and Elly wore Kaylee's costume from last year (a bit big, but hey, it worked, and she'll probably get to wear it a couple more times, hehe). Earlier in the day, we carved our pumpkin. When I pulled off the top, this is what I saw.

Cool, isn't is? I've never seen anything like it before! The gardener in me had a really hard time not just taking those little babies and planting them in the garden. It took some convincing myself that it is Fall, after all, and even in TX you don't plant pumpkins in the Fall. Unfortunately. When we were done carving the pumpking, we took it out to the front door, along with a few smaller pie pumpkins that the kids decorated (and that are going to be un-decorated later this week, to be turned into pumpkin pie, or pumpkin bread, or pancakes, or something).

Later on, Dave took the kids trick-or-treating.

I stayed home so I could play on facebook. Uh, I mean, answer the door for the large numbers of trick-or-treaters we expected (all 20 of them, hehe).

The kids fared well. I'm glad I decided not to hand out candy this year (playdoh and little games are so much more fun, aren't they???), so at least I didn't add to the pile of candy that is now sitting in a bowl on top of our fridge (and that is mysteriously shrinking by the hour...).

And that, my friends, is the story of our awesomely scary (not really) and FUN Halloween. :p

Don't you love the one eyed pumpkin without a nose? He got two ears instead. We had to compensate somehow, you know. I think next year we will go back to a more traditional model of the jack-o-lantern. :p

Welcome NaBloPoMo!

2009-11-01T21:37:00.001-06:00

Yes, my friends, it's that time of year again. National Blog Posting Month! Maybe now that'll help me get back in the habit of writing. Join me if you want! One post a day for the month of November! :o)

What? A post? You mean I'm supposed to write something?

2009-10-21T14:26:00.002-05:00

I found out I do have some fans who still check in from time to time, and have been disappointed to not find a whole lot in the way of random ramblings or deep thoughts. Also, this IS supposed to be a sort of journal, and 2009 isn't looking so great with only 55 posts to date (this being #56). Maybe I should cancel my facebook account, I'm sure I'd have lots and lots of time to sit down and blog again. Saskia, I blame it all on you. You're the one who told me to join FB! hehe Ah well, what's done is done. I promise to be back more regularly, with exciting (and not-so-exciting) updates of all things random and deep. Crist, I'll try to cut back on the number of gardening posts, too, just for you. Okay, maybe not. Maybe you should just learn to appreciate the art and excitement of growing your own food. ;o)

That being said, it's now 2:30 p.m. and I'm still sitting around in my pj's. Better go get ready before the kids get home from school and we begin our busy Wednesday afternoon routine. Stay tuned for more (I promise!)!

Muscle Man Challenge

2009-09-27T17:19:00.005-05:00

Bryan got to go to his first gymnastics competition yesterday. It was a strength competition. He won second place in his age group! Here are a few tidbits. :o)

Six weeks later

2009-08-23T10:08:00.003-05:00

Yes, this is another garden post. :p It's been six weeks since I put the seeds in the ground and put in the tomato and pepper transplants. Everything is doing well! We've been busy harvesting squash, and I have plans to make zucchini bread today. Yum. The pepper plants have tiny peppers on them, and the cucumbers are growing all over the place. I'm expecting to be able to harvest the first couple of cucumbers in two to three weeks or so, we'll see. The tomatoes keep putting out flowers, but no fruits so far. Hopefully soon.

Summer Rain

2009-08-18T09:19:00.004-05:00

Here's to the babies!

2009-08-15T11:04:00.002-05:00

Lest you think my only interest lies in gardening and watching the squash grow (which it is!), I do also love watching my children grow. I especially love when they get along great and play together. :o)

Just call me the Pollinator

2009-08-14T07:46:00.004-05:00

Last week, I had the first big beautiful flower open up on one of my squashes. It never got pollinated, however, and the little squash is shriveling away to nothing. Determined not to let that happen to my other squashes, I've decided to take matters into my own hands and help nature along a bit. I now go for my morning garden inspection armed with a q-tip. If the bees don't want to do their job, I will do it for them. So I've been going out and pollinating the little squashes. There are one or two open every morning, along with one or two male flowers. Just call me the Pollinator. Ha! It's certainly interesting how the bad bugs seem to have no problem finding my little plants, but for some reason, the good bugs don't seem to be getting the message that there's food to be had. Go figure. Everything is growing pretty well, though I have lost a couple of zucchini plants to the squash vine borer. I decided just to pull them out when I noticed they were affected, since I don't need more vine borers hatching from my garden next Spring... The remaining two zucchini plants are doing really well, and I should be getting some zucchini not too long after the yellow crookneck. Can't wait! Cucumbers are growing nicely, too, and I've noticed the first couple of little male flowers opening up. Hopefully the females should start coming up in another week or so, and then we'll have cucumbers soon! The peppers and tomatoes both are putting out flowers, as well, though I haven't noticed much in the way of fruit yet. Maybe I'll have to help those along, too, I don't know. Will have to bring more q-tips along for tomorrow's morning rounds. :p

More garden pictures!

2009-08-07T15:41:00.003-05:00

I didn't think I was going to post more garden pictures so soon, but I am just blown away by how quickly everything is growing! I only put seeds in for the squash and cucumbers 3 weeks ago, and they are getting huge! The tomatoes are putting out flowers now, but if they grow anything like last summer, they won't actually set fruit until it cools down a bit, maybe the beginning of September. We shall see. I am really happy with the garden so far, I hope everything continues to grow well and we'll get to start harvesting soon!

Garden at the end of July

2009-07-31T16:47:00.008-05:00

Well, here it is, for all you fans of gardening! After we got back from Germany, I didn't waste any time in getting my summer garden going. Sure, I am at the late end of it, but according to some nifty planting schedule I found for this area, I should hopefully be able to still grow some veggies. Or rather, fruit. Since, you know, many of the things we call veggies are actually fruit. Who knew? :p I got three different types of tomatoes, three different bell peppers (green, yellow, orange), and put in seeds for zucchini, yellow crookneck squash, and cucumbers. The seeds sprouted amazingly fast (less than a week!), and the plants are growing nicely.

The whole garden, cucumber trellises on the right will be changed (the really green stuff in the middle are marigolds without flowers....).

One of the peppers is already growing!

One of two yellow crooknecks, getting big already!

One of four zucchini plants, supposedly these are a "spacesaver" variety.

One of four cucumber plants. I need to space a couple of them some more, and make a nice trellis for them to grow up on.

Yes, yes, we are still alive!

2009-07-26T18:31:00.002-05:00

I've been suffering from blogger's block lately. Hence no posts since the beginning of June... Oh, and I've also been rather busy. And facebook is a time sucker, people! Goodness. Anyway, thought I'd stop by for a quick re-cap of what we've been up to. Since this is not only a blog for your enjoyment, but also sort of a journal for myself. :p

Went to Germany the end of May, for 7 weeks!
Spent June hanging out with my family, fun times!
Dave joined up with us the end of June, and we spent a week at the Baltic Sea. Awesome!
Back home to hot and humid TX mid-July. Brought some rain with us! Yay!
Got Bryan and Kaylee enrolled in gymnastics. Bryan is now on the level 4 boys team. Kaylee is getting pretty good with the handstands.
Tyler celebrated his 9th birthday while in Germany. Can't believe only one more year to double digits!
Dave is crazy busy with work right now. Gotta love deadlines... But at least he has a job!
Got my summer garden planted. Tomatoes, bell peppers, cucumbers, yellow crookneck, and zucchini. So far, everything is doing great. :o)

That, my friends, is it in a nutshell. Stay tuned for more! I have, after all, set a goal to blog more regularly again. :o)

Food, glorious food

2009-06-03T04:05:00.003-05:00

We're still alive! Gotta find time to blog at some point. Here are a couple of pictures to hold you over. :p

Right, I have a blog!

2009-05-11T12:39:00.002-05:00

Goodness, life has been busy. Actually, Elly hasn't been quite herself for a while now. First she got a tooth, then last week she was busy incubating something that ended with some throw-up and a fever on Saturday. She's slowly returning to normal, but she's been nursing A LOT lately, and waking up 5 or 6 times a night. I'm exhausted. I almost find myself longing for her newborn days when she'd regularly sleep 6 or 7 hours in a row. She's got the whole sleep thing backwards, I'm afraid. I'm really hoping that she'll go back to a normal sleep pattern now that she's beginning to feel better. Sleep deprivation does not for a happy mother make. :p I do have some cute pictures to post, but the power cable to my laptop got fried, so I have to wait for new one before I can get on to upload from my camera (can't find the USB cable to upload to my desktop). So, keep checking back, and I'll have some pictures and a longer and hopefully more interesting post coming up soon!

Time to harvest

2009-04-24T18:24:00.004-05:00

After the heavy rains last weekend, I was really worried about the potato plants. The water just wasn't draining well, and potatoes don't like sitting in wet soil. Throughout the week, I've been watching as the potato plants seemed to be slowly withering away. I considered them a total loss. Today, I was talking to my neighbor, who had also planted potatoes around the same time I did (in fact, I'd gotten my seed potatoes from her). She told me she'd decided to take out her own plants, since they were all dead, and she actually found potatoes. She was pretty surprised. So I decided to go back and dig up my garden, too. Lo and behold, I found potatoes! And tons of earthworms. Yay for healthy soil! I was rather excited. Now I don't know if the plants were wilting because the potatoes were done, or if it was indeed the water that did them in. I'm leaning towards water, because there were quite a few small potatoes that still had a lot of growing to do. At least it wasn't a total loss, though! Out of six potato plants (about 1.5 pounds of seed potatoes), I got 6.5 pounds of potatoes. Not a huge harvest, but at least it's something! Actually, I probably had closer to 7.5 pounds, but some of the potatoes I had to throw out because they were all mushy (I'm thinking spoiled from sitting in the wet soil). So for dinner tonight, we're having fresh boiled potatoes with butter and sour cream. Yum! I also decided to pull out my one and only kohlrabi plant, and we already at it up. If you haven't eaten kohlrabi, you should try it sometime. Just slice it up and eat it raw (you could dip it in veggie dip if you wanted to).

potatoes and kohlrabi

We also have an abundance of carrots. They are delicious!

Fruits of my labor

2009-04-20T16:16:00.007-05:00

Or rather, vegetables. :p I processed the second batch of kale today. I tore out 6 of my plants, which had somewhat fallen over after the heavy rain and winds on Saturday. They were the plants that I had already harvested a lot of leaves from, so they were a bit more susceptible to the weather, I guess. Anyway, I tore them out and took off the rest of the leaves to process today.

cleaned and ready to be cut

blanching process

nearly 8 pounds of vacuum packed kale, in 5 bags

Today's harvest doubled what's already in the freezer. I now have kale all ready for 10 batches of soup. Yum. I also saved some of the blanching water, to use as stock for soups or something. Now to figure out what to do with all the rest of the kale that's still growing out there. I may try freezing some without all the processing, just to use in frittatas or green smoothies or something. My freezer is going to be full of kale, haha!

Texas Downpour

2009-04-18T15:56:00.004-05:00

Insane!

backyard

frontyard

neighbor's car

fire hydrant on our street

Go TEAM!

2009-04-16T22:33:00.002-05:00

I knew this day would come. There's been talk of it for a few months now. Well, today, Bryan officially got invited to participate in the gymnastics team. He's going to start level 4 after we get back from Germany in July. The coach who talked to me said that he actually already has some of the skills for level 5, but they're starting him in 4, anyway. To start slowly, so he (hopefully) won't get burnt out. Good thing, too, I'm going to need a slow start on my wallet... :p I've known for a long time that Bryan has an incredible talent. Like, when he started climbing out of his crib at 18 months. Learned to ride a scooter at 2.5 years old. Insisted we take the training wheels off his bike just after his third birthday. Started doing flips from the recliner onto the couch and vice versa. Learned how to do a headstand just after his fourth birthday. Spent a full two months in his preschool gymnastics class before being promoted to the big boys' class when he was only 4.5 (and half the size of those boys...). He's incredibly strong and coordinated, and has amazing control over his body. It's really fun to watch him, and it was great to see a gymnastics coach be so excited about Bryan's talent and the prospect of having him on the team. I hope he's going to enjoy working harder, and starting competition. Let the fun begin!

Portraits

2009-04-11T09:13:00.007-05:00

They are all done! My talented friend Tearese finished all the drawings she did of the portraits I had sent her (that my other talented friend Chalice took when we were in AZ). I love how they turned out, and can't wait to put them all up on my wall! :o)

Hair!

2009-04-10T09:39:00.002-05:00

Let me tell you, I've been waiting for this for a long time! Now maybe people will stop referring to Elly as "he" (yes, they still do, never mind the pink pants or shirt she's wearing...). And yes, that's a fat lip. Don't ask. :p

She eats!

2009-04-08T18:45:00.003-05:00

Elly, that is. We had a strong start with solids around 5 months or so. She was ready to eat, and she loved it! So much so that by 7 months, we were up to two feedings a day, almost ready to go to three. Then something happened, around 8 or 9 months. I'm not entirely sure what, but it resulted in Elly not wanting to eat solids at all. She started nursing more frequently again, and I wasn't overly concerned. Maybe her budding teeth started bugging her? They didn't poke through until 10 months, but I'm sure she could already feel them. Anyway, so she started refusing solid foods. She did like the little baby snacks, but those hardly even deserve to be called food. :p As Elly started approaching her first birthday, however, it became apparent that breastmilk simply wasn't enough for her anymore. She started picking up frequent night feeds again, every two hours around the clock. I know. Exhausting. She didn't even wake up that often as a newborn! We really needed to put more effort into getting more calories into her during the day. But feeding her was such a chore! On top of not wanting solids, she refused to sit in her highchair, as well. She had to be on a lap, and then she would eat a few bites. I did notice that on the days she ate well, she only woke up a couple of times during the night, so yeah, she needed more food! I talked about our issues with my doctor at Elly's one year check-up, and she didn't seem overly concerned. She said Elly was doing just fine, and breastmilk was just great for her. I said on principal, I totally agreed with her (and have I mentioned I love this doctor???). But the fact that I was waking up every two hours at night was not okay. :p She gave me a few suggestions, and encouraged me to just be patient and give it time. I went home feeling good about the fact that Elly was still thriving on breastmilk, but not so fond of the idea of putting up with such frequent night feeds for much longer. Then one day last week, I talked to a friend (or family member?) on the phone (or in person?). I totally can't remember who it was I was talking to. Blame it on sleep deprivation. ;o) Anyway, the dreaded feeding topic came up, and we started talking about the much-hated highchair. Then the idea came up to just take off the tray and push the chair up to the table. Maybe she just felt like she wasn't part of the action, with the tray blocking access to all the food fun. Hm, I thought, worth a try. On Monday, I finally got up the courage to take off the tray, and approach the highchair with Elly on my hip. In the past, Elly would start screaming before her feet even touched the chair. I tried every so often, always with the same result. Now, the tray was off. As we got closer, Elly curiously eyed the chair. I put her in it. Much to my surprise, she not only tolerated it, she loved it! She had a good time! I sat down and started feeding her, and she ate! Wow. A miracle. She now willingly sits in her chair, and lets us feed her. Or she feeds herself, depending on what's on the menu. Sitting in the chair helps keep her focused on eating, too, so she takes in a lot more food than she has before. Most excellent! So to whoever it was I was talking to, thank you thank you thank you! You more than likely helped save my sanity! :D

Here she is, loving the food.

Bananas, when mashed in your hands and put in your hair, make for an excellent "do". :p

The Voice

2009-04-05T21:16:00.001-05:00

My niece posted this on her blog. I can't stop listening to it!

Girly!

2009-04-04T21:29:00.003-05:00

During the last couple of weeks, Kaylee has been all into coloring her toenails and fingernails. Almost every day, she takes a purple marker and 'paints' her nails. Then she gets all sad when the color washes off when she cleans her hands or takes a bath. Today, I pulled out some of my nail polish, and got to work. She totally loved the result. I did our toes, and her fingernails, too. I didn't color my own fingernails, can't stand the feel of it. Kaylee was all over it, though! Fun times. :o)

Sometimes, the system works!

2009-04-03T21:22:00.002-05:00

A while back, I wrote a post about the awesome family doctor we're seeing here. I've seen her a couple more times, and she really is great. She's actually part of a big medical group, which came in quite handy today. You know how sometimes, when your kids get sick, you get the run-around to get all the tests done and whatnot? Well, today was one of those days that could have potentially turned crazy. But it didn't! Tyler's been sick for a little while. He had a bit of a cold last week, but then started getting better. Then Wednesday, he came down with a pretty high fever and a headache. I thought maybe he had caught the flu. He looked better Thursday, but then early Friday morning, the high fever and headache returned. With the weekend coming up, I thought it would be a good idea to call the doctor's office to see what they thought. They wanted to see him, of course. Our regular family doctor wasn't in today, but one of the pediatricians was able to see us. Tyler and I got there shortly before 11 a.m., and were called back pretty quickly. Saw the nurse, and within a few minutes, the doctor came in. He was really nice, checked Tyler over, then told me he'd like to do a quick blood test just to see. He thought it was viral, but said there's a possibility it's bacterial, and he just wanted to make sure. So off to the lab we went. Two doors down. For a seriously quick blood draw! The lady did it so fast, Tyler almost didn't even realize it happened. Awesome! Then we waited 15 minutes for the results. The doctor came back to the waiting area to see us, and said that Tyler had an elevated white blood count, and he wanted a chest x-ray done. So off we went, up to radiology on the 4th floor. Signed in there, got called back, and within a matter of about 15 minutes, we were back down in pediatrics in the waiting area. A little while later, the doctor came out again to call us back. He told me Tyler had walking pneumonia, and would be put on antibiotics. Then he gave me a quick run-down of what to look for etc., and then sent in the nurse with the rocephin shots. Two of them, in Tyler's bum. Poor kid. I'm not entirely sure we really needed rocephin, but the doctor thought based on what he saw on the x-ray, he'd feel better pulling the "big guns". The rest of the course is just oral antibiotics, for the next 5 days. We ended up having to wait another 15 minutes in the waiting area after the shots, just to make sure there weren't any immediate side effects from the antibiotics. Then we were off. All in all, it took us an hour and a half. Which, considering everything that happened, felt like no time at all! It was all so smooth, no extra paper work to fill out for the lab work, etc. etc. etc. One bonus point for the medical group. :p

Garden at the end of March

2009-03-27T15:35:00.006-05:00

For reference, this is what it looked like four weeks ago. Here it is now. From left to right, there is kale, carrots, and potatoes in the back, green onions, chives, parsley and cilantro in the middle, and my lone surviving kohlrabi plant surrounded by lettuce in the front. There were supposed to be a couple of zucchini plants in the big empty spot, but for some reason, they never came up. Don't know if the bugs ate them? My sugar snap pea plants are on their last leg. We've harvested most of the pods, and they have pretty much stopped flowering now. They've also got an ugly case of some type of mildew on the leaves. I'll probably take them out in another week or two, once we pick the remaining pods. The lettuce that is growing by the pea plants has now bolted, so I need to take that out, as well. We ate from it all winter! Amazing. The spots of color you see are the marigolds (for bug control).

Our citrus trees are in full bloom right now. I love standing by them, the scent in the air is delicious!

I also planted a blackberry bush a couple of weeks ago. It's doing really well!

Here are some pretty weeds growing in my grass. They will be pulled tomorrow.

Kale Frittata, take 2

2009-03-26T11:07:00.004-05:00

So I tried again today, and it was absolutely delicious!

3 eggs
1 large kale leaf, stem removed, cut into small pieces
1 green onion, cut up (regular onion would work, too, but I have tons of green onions in my garden, so that's what I used)
1/4 to 1/2 cup of shredded cheese (I used cheddar, but I bet swiss would be awesome!)
pinch of salt and pepper

With a fork, beat egg with salt and pepper in a bowl. Add cheese and mix well. Add kale and green onion and mix everything really well. Preheat an omelette pan on low heat, add a little vegetable oil (the spray kind works nicely). When heated well (though not too hot), add frittata mixture. Cook on low heat until egg looks mostly set. Turn over to finish cooking (make sure all the egg is cooked thoroughly). All done! And oh so good!

6 years later...

2009-03-23T21:07:00.004-05:00

Kale Frittata

2009-03-22T09:00:00.005-05:00

I have an abundance of kale in my garden right now. Seriously, tons. If you live close by, come for a visit, and take some kale home with you when you leave. Seriously! :p Anyway, in an effort to actually use what I grow in my garden, I find myself constantly thinking of and looking for recipes that involve kale. One can only have soup so many times, right? Well, this morning I decided to try a kale frittata. It turned out surprisingly good! Both Kaylee and Elly loved it, so I didn't get nearly as big a breakfast as I would have liked. We have church during lunchtime, so I try to eat a big breakfast in order not to starve to death while there (nursing Elly still requires a continuous intake of calories!). Anyway, as I was saying, I made a kale frittata. Really easy to make, and tastes better than it sounds! I used three eggs, two large leaves of kale, a green onion, some salt, and some pepper. Removed the kale leaves from the stem, cut the green onion and kale fairly small, and mixed everything up. Then poured it into a little omelette pan and cooked it on low heat until it was pretty much cooked all the way through, turned it over to finish it up. All done! Like I said, the girls loved it! Next time, I think I'm going to add one more egg, as it was a bit heavy on the kale. And to hopefully fill me up a little more, what with two helpers! And add some cheese to the mix. Can't believe I forgot the cheese! :o)

1 year later...

2009-03-19T19:14:00.003-05:00

4 years later...

2009-03-16T21:29:00.004-05:00

I think I figured it out. And an apology.

2009-03-15T14:53:00.003-05:00

Okay, so obviously, I wrote my last post when I was still a bit upset. :p I did not, by any means, mean to imply that everyone should have a home birth, or at the very least a natural birth at a hospital. Neither did I mean to imply that those who choose medical intervention for their births are all ignorant. So sorry if it came off that way. I also think I figured out why I was so frustrated with the conversation I had with this friend. I felt like I was talking to myself nine years ago! Everything she said, I used to say. I thought I knew everything there was to know about birth. After all, I had a great OB, had taken a hospital birthing class, and had read at least two books on childbirth. Well, birth number one was a very traumatic experience, and it wasn't until years later (and lots of reading the right books) that I realized everything that was wrong with my attitude then. That I saw everything that is wrong with the current maternity care system (namely, the medicalization thereof). The real problem, in my opinion, is the lack of true informed consent. Where women go for information about birth will often define the type of birth they end up having. I was surrounded by women who birthed at hospitals, touted the greatness of the epidural man, and talked about the more-or-less inevitable episiotomy that I could look forward to recovering from. The doctor certainly didn't put any ideas of drug free labor into my head, neither did he make me question routine procedures (like artificial rupture of membranes, IV, being strapped to bed with the monitor, getting an epidural...). In fact, he failed to discuss these procedures, including their risks, with me at all. And who goes to the hospital in labor and actually reads through all of the consent forms and waivers? Sign here, sign there, breathe through a contraction, oh, and sign five more times over here. Thankyouverymuch. Mimi put it well in her comment on my other post. Often, we learn through our own experience. At the time of Tyler's birth, I didn't realize it, but I do believe it caused birth trauma. The way I was completely disrespected during Bryan's birth added to that. It wasn't until I learned more about normal birth, and started taking charge of my own body, that I was able to heal from those experiences. So, knowing all of that, I think it added to my frustration that I felt like my experience really wasn't validated. It was blown off as "too bad, sorry you had a sucky doctor". Which I did, but I didn't. Most women trust and respect their doctors, and that is a good thing. What would make maternity care better, though, and what could prevent experiences such as the ones I had from happening, are doctors who truly care, and take the time to really communicate with women about the choices they have, and what each choice entails. Doctors who would encourage women to do their own research, who would point them to childbirth educators not associated with a hospital. Ideally, women should be able to really weigh all of the benefits and risks associated with birth choices, so they can make a decision that is truly informed. One can dream, right?

Me and my big mouth...

2009-03-12T14:28:00.007-05:00

So went to visit a friend today. She's about 4 weeks away from giving birth to her first child. Naturally, we got talking about things birth related. We talked about different birth choices, and it was a pleasant discussion. Until she stated she thought it was crazy to have a home birth. Now, I don't think she meant to imply that I was crazy for having one, but she thought the idea of it sounded crazy to her, and apparently she could not wrap her mind around why anyone would want to NOT birth at a hospital. So, I told her about my experiences with hospital birth, and with home birth, and the difference between the two. I also explained to her that I did a lot of research before choosing to give birth at home, and it most certainly was not a decision made lightly, just because I thought it would be fun or whatever. I told her about some interventions that are fairly routine at hospitals and that I didn't agree with (based on the fact that there is no scientific research to back up these routine practices, in fact, plenty of evidence to suggest they may do more harm than good). One of those interventions is cutting episiotomies. I briefly mentioned how I'd had one with my first baby, and I didn't think there had been any medical indication for one. And I was a bit bitter about that. After all, who really wants their private parts cut up when there is no reason for it? She immediately jumped on me about how episiotomies are a good thing, because they are so much better than tearing. Because, you know, you get a straight cut, and how much better is that than a rugged tear? I told her I didn't agree with that, and neither did the several people who researched episiotomy and came to the conclusion that it actually did more harm than good unless it was used in emergencies. She totally wouldn't even let me talk, and I got so upset. I took out a piece of paper to give her the visual. See, try and tear the paper. It won't, it's pretty resilient. Then give the paper a little "controlled" cut. Now try and tear it apart. Wow, look at it rip! She still wouldn't hear any of it. Which was rather frustrating to me. Of course, I can't just go and keep my mouth shut. I have to argue with the pregnant woman (big no-no, isn't it???). I told her that if left untouched, her perineum would have about a 50/50 chance of tearing. If that. With an episiotomy, you're guaranteed an injury. And yes, the cut itself is controlled, but the possible extended tear is not. At all. In fact, generally the most severe tears follow an episiotomy. While they do happen naturally, they are very very rare. It just really bothers me when doctors make women think that since it's their first baby, they may as well be prepared to be cut. Ugh. Yes, some women tear, no matter how carefully they push, or what position, or whatever. Looking at the research, though, it has been shown that tears actually heal better than episiotomies, and an episiotomy really should only be performed if it's absolutely necessary (i.e. in an emergency). Now seriously, why did we even need to argue about this? Couldn't I have just let her live with the belief that if she got an episiotomy, then that's just because it was her first baby, and it's the way it is? No, I couldn't have, because then I wouldn't have been me. We finally moved on, and talked some more about home birth versus hospital birth. She brought up the risk and what if's, and I just told her that in a hospital setting, there are risks, as well. She's planning on just getting an epidural, which of course isn't without risks, either. The risks are just different. And really, if there had been an emergency with my home birth, I could have been at the hospital under the knife within probably 10 to 15 minutes. My midwife was highly qualified, has been catching babies for 30 years, and knows quite well what she's doing and what to look for in potential problems. We were very open to transfer if there had been any indication at all that one was needed. Simply being at the hospital does not guarantee nothing is ever going to go wrong, or mistakes aren't going to be made. With each intervention a woman accepts (IV, pitocin, epidural, having the water broken, etc.), there are risks involved. The risks may be different, but they're there nonetheless. I told her as much. The whole experience discussing these issues with her has made me double guess whether I want to still go into childbirth education. I just have no patience, I'm afraid. Sometimes, my mouth just runs away from me, and I say something before I've really thought about it. I think it's great when women trust their care providers. That's the way it should be. What's frustrating to me is when women completely hand over their care, do no research on their own, don't question, just take whatever they're told and are good little patients. I realize not everyone wants to birth at home, or have a natural birth. Maybe to some, ignorance is bliss, and they don't want to know anything beyond what their doctor and hospital tour guide tells them. Great. But don't tell me I'm crazy for actually doing my research, and making a choice that doesn't involve submitting to hospital procedures and doctor convenience...

Garden at the end of February

2009-02-28T13:37:00.004-06:00

Time for another garden post! I spent a lot of time out there today. With the heat wave we've been having (okay, not really hot, but definitely a heat wave for it being February), everything has been growing by leaps and bounds. Including the weeds, of course. I also tore out all of the old spinach today. I now have a better idea of how many rows I really need, and hopefully won't be wasting so much next time around. I put in some humus and composted cow manure where the spinach used to be, and put in a couple rows of lettuce seeds. The kohlrabi I put in a while ago hasn't been doing so great. I have seven plants left, and decided to put little cups around them to try and protect them from the caterpillars and snails that have been munching on the leaves. Hopefully I'll be able to save the little plants, and they'll start growing better. I do like kohlrabi every once in a while. :o) The potatoes I put in a couple of weeks ago are starting to take off, and I filled in the little trenches today. I'm going to have to keep putting soil/compost around the plants every few weeks to make sure the little potatoes stay covered. I also put in a few marigolds throughout the garden bed, as I've read they tend to keep the bugs away. The bad bugs, anyway. We'll see if it works. I think my neighbor had trouble with them attracting aphids last year, so if that becomes an issue, I may have to take them out again. For now they add a nice touch of color to all the green. As for the pea plant, it seems to have finally slowed down with the upward growth, and is growing lots of foliage and flowers. We've been able to harvest more than just two or three peas over the last couple of days, which has been fun. I love to garden! :o)

Little Artist

2009-02-26T16:06:00.001-06:00

Bryan brought this home from school yesterday. I love it!

One smart cookie

2009-02-25T15:08:00.002-06:00

Yes, I have cookie on the brain. Or rather, in the stomach. Got some girl scout cookies yesterday. Can you blame me? But this post isn't about that. It's about Elly, of course. :p A few nights ago, I was getting her ready for bed. After I put her pj's on, she looked at me and signed "sleep". Then she signed "nursies". Putting words together! She's also working on her speech. Her first word? "Nein." Told you she's smart. :p

The trouble with repeat cesareans

2009-02-24T12:07:00.002-06:00

So I still get Time magazine. Every so often, there's something really worthwhile to be found in there. Like this article on repeat cesarean sections, and the trouble more and more women are having trying to find a care provider who will agree to attend a vaginal birth after cesarean (VBAC). In the 90's, VBAC was actually encouraged. But the trend has reversed. Fewer doctors are willing to attend VBAC, and some hospitals have right out banned them. Why?

"It's a numbers thing," says Dr. Shelley Binkley, an ob-gyn in private practice in Colorado Springs who stopped offering VBACs in 2003. "You don't get sued for doing a C-section. You get sued for not doing a C-section."

Often, the risk of uterine rupture is cited as a reason to avoid VBAC. However, there are lots of things that can lower that risk, including avoiding induction or pitocin augmentation during labor. And lets not forget that repeat cesareans come with their own set of risks.

With each repeat cesarean, a mother's risk of heavy bleeding, infection and infertility, among other complications, goes up. Perhaps most alarming, repeat C-sections increase a woman's chances of developing life-threatening placental abnormalities that can cause hemorrhaging during childbirth. The rate of placenta accreta--in which the placenta attaches abnormally to the uterine wall--has increased thirtyfold in the past 30 years. "The problem is only beginning to mushroom," says ACOG's Zelop.

Ultimately, the choice should be up to the parents. They should be presented with risks and benefits of both VBAC and repeat cesarean, and able to make an informed decision. Often, this is not happening.

Dr. Stuart Fischbein, an ob-gyn whose Camarillo, Calif., hospital won't allow the procedure, is concerned that women are getting "skewed" information about the risks of a VBAC "that leads them down the path that the doctor or hospital wants them to follow, as opposed to medical information that helps them make the best decision." According to a nationwide survey by Childbirth Connection, a 91-year-old maternal-care advocacy group based in New York City, 57% of C-section veterans who gave birth in 2005 were interested in a VBAC but were denied the option of having one.

Pamela Paul, the author of the article, wrote the backstory to it in the Huffington post. Go read it here.

Even if a repeat cesarean section is necessary, care should be taken not to do it too early. Read here about the risks associated with early c-sections. The bottom line is, if you've had a cesarean section and are faced with a decision about what to do for future births, make sure you're well informed. Discuss the issue at length with your care provider. Find out not only their stance on the subject, but their actual VBAC and c-section rates. And if you do decide to (or need to) go for a repeat c-section, wait as close to your due date as possible, preferably even a trial of labor before to ensure baby is ready to be born.

Second portrait

2009-02-23T12:59:00.002-06:00

This one is of Tyler. I think it turned out great! I love all the detail she puts into the drawings, makes them look so real. :o) Head on over to Tearese's blog to see the work in progress.

Attack of the Giant Pea

2009-02-19T09:30:00.003-06:00

It's probably close to 6.5 feet now. Will it ever stop growing???

Speaking of growing...

...look who's 11 months old today!

Belonging. Somewhere.

2009-02-17T20:38:00.003-06:00

I'm trying to like living here. I'm trying really hard. I love our house. I love our backyard, and I love that I have a winter garden. Which is producing copious amounts of yummy veggies. I have quite possibly the most friendly neighbor in the universe. She's been so welcoming and nice ever since the day we moved in. I have the coolest double stroller ever, which I frequently take for a walk around our nicely groomed neighborhood. With two of my four awesome kids in it. I got a wii for my birthday. (Okay, that one was really random) But really, I'm so blessed. I should be happy. So what's my deal? I don't feel like I belong here. I don't have any real friends. You know, the ones you'd sit and watch a movie with all hours of the night. The ones you sit and eat chocolate with, and talk until the wee hours of the morning. The ones who listen to you, and the ones who will talk to you about anything. Friends who share your laughter and tears. I don't have them here. And I miss them so dearly. I know I need to just give it all some time. I know it takes a while to really feel like you belong somewhere. But I hate going to playgroups and church activities and whatnot, and feeling like I'm just the new person. Everyone else already knows each other, and you're just there, kind of like a third wheel. I try to participate in conversations. But you know that feeling when you say something, and you realize nobody's listening to you? Yeah, I've been having that a lot during the last few months. Things just haven't "clicked". So, I feel isolated. And I just don't feel at home. If that makes any sense. Now excuse me while I go and cry myself a river.

Post #555

2009-02-17T20:37:00.000-06:00

Was that "First Five" post. Totally random, I know.

First Five

2009-02-11T20:04:00.001-06:00

I got this off my friend's blog, and it sounds like great fun! Won't you play?

The first five people to respond to this post will get something made by me! My choice. For you. This offer does have some restrictions and limitations:

1- I make no guarantees that you will like what I make!
2- What I create will be just for you.
3- It’ll be done this year.
4- You have no clue what it’s going to be. It may be a story. It may be photography or an article on properly cleaning your face before a masque. I may sew or paint something. I may bake you something and mail it to you. Who knows? Not you, that’s for sure!
5- I reserve the right to do something extremely strange.

The catch? Oh, the catch is that you must repost this on your blog and offer the same to the first 5 people who do the same on your blog. The first 5 people to do so and leave a comment telling me they did win a FAB-U-LOUS homemade gift by me! Oh, and be sure to post a picture of what you win when you get it!

Diggin' in the dirt

2009-02-09T21:04:00.008-06:00

Elly and I had a grand time out by the garden today. She loves to help me! I think I'm going to need to get her a sandbox or something. The kid is really diggin' the dirt! :p Hope you enjoy Elly's adventures in gardening!

Hey, what are those?

Mmmmm, carrots! (okay, no, she can't really eat those, she only has one tooth!)

I'm not so sure this one passes inspection...

Let's see, what else do we have? Spinach is good for you, right?

Uh oh, what's that I see???!!!

Better pull those weeds!

Whew, that was hard work...

There she goes!

2009-02-07T10:17:00.003-06:00

Elly has been getting much better at walking over this past week. She's a lot more secure now, and is beginning to transition from just crawling wherever she wants to go to actually trying to walk there. So cute!

Fun times

2009-02-06T19:32:00.002-06:00

I had a great birthday yesterday. Went for a playdate at a friend's house, which was really fun. The kids had gymnastics in the afternoon, and after that we went out to dinner. Mexican food. Yum. It was good, but of course I ate way too much. Good thing we don't do that every week. Today I went to another playdate. I found and joined a natural/gentle parenting group on meetup a couple of days ago, and they had a park playdate today. It was close by our house, so I decided to go. It was fun to meet with some other moms who homebirth, breastfeed past one year, cloth diaper, etc. You don't feel quite so strange, haha. I think this is going to be a weekly activity, and I'm planning on going again next week. It's definitely nice to get out of the house and make some friends, it's time for me to come out of hiding. Always takes me a while after moving to a new place, but I'm ready to make some new friends. :o)

31

2009-02-05T07:28:00.002-06:00

Today is my 31st birthday. I think I feel like I'm officially in my 30's now. Wow. I remember when my cousin turned 30 (he's 6 years older than I), and I thought that sounded so incredibly old! Haha. Here I am. :p No gray hairs yet, but then my family is pretty late when it comes to getting gray hair, so I'm sure I'll have at least 10 more years. Like that really matters, anyway. No big plans for the day. I'm going for a playdate with the girls at around noon, and then it's gymnastics this afternoon. We may go out for a birthday dinner on Saturday. Yeah, we're really low key around here. :o)

Adorable!

2009-02-04T14:42:00.002-06:00

I have the most talented friends, can I just tell you that? Check out what my former neighbor Tearese is up to. She does have a very cute model, I must say. :p

15 weeks!

2009-02-03T14:44:00.002-06:00

And the kids and I will be OFF to Germany! I'm so excited! We'll be there for 7 weeks. Yay! :o)

Sorry I haven't been around much lately. Life has been getting in the way of blogging. :p Plus, my brain has been in somewhat of a fog, and it's been hard for me to organize my thoughts to write up a meaningful post.

She's walking!

2009-01-29T20:59:00.000-06:00

Elly finally got up the courage to let go this evening. She started with three or four tentative steps, and within an hour, she walked all the way across the boys' room (about 6'). She was so excited, too! At one point, she stopped, just stood there, and started clapping. So cute. :o) Of course, when it was time for bed shortly after this great accomplishment, she had a mild case of restless leg syndrome, haha! She kept trying to stand up in bed while she was nursing. That didn't work too well. But who can blame her? Growing up is so exciting!

Garden Bliss!

2009-01-24T16:02:00.005-06:00

I finally found some time today to go tend to my (somewhat neglected) garden. It was so much fun! Maybe because I was out there all by myself, without kids, just me in my own little garden world. Before I knew it, and hour and a half had gone by, and was it ever a good time. I got all the weeding done, transplanted some kale plants, sowed some kohlrabi and cilantro, and harvested some carrots. Actually, I pulled carrots to thin them out some more, but most of the ones I pulled were already big enough to eat. Yum! We've also been able to pick some sugar snap peas already. We just go out to the garden for a little snack now, haha! The garden really is doing well, I couldn't be more pleased with it. The kale is getting to be quite big, and I'm hoping the plants all survived the transplanting. They were all way too close together, so I had to take some and move them. Hopefully I didn't kill them! The spinach is still growing nicely, as are the carrots. We've also been enjoying the green onions and parsley. It's so nice to be able to just go outside and get what we need to spice up a meal. :o) The sugar snap peas are getting really tall, they're probably close to 6' now. I had to extend the trellis. Interestingly, the foliage is really kind of sparse. They also have some issues with leaves turning yellow. Maybe they just need more fertilizer, I don't know. There are lots of blossoms, though, and the pods grow quite quickly. They taste really sweet. The lettuce is insane, that's the only way I know how to describe it. If you ever decide to put arugula in your garden, be prepared for it to take over! That stuff grows like a weed, haha! I also put in a few more rows of carrots and another row of green onions a couple of weeks ago, and everything is starting to come up. I had some potatoes that were beginning to sprout in my fridge, and I planted those a couple of weeks ago, as well. So far nothing, though, not sure that they'll actually grow. If nothing else, they'll fertilize the ground, right? :p Anyway, here it is, all nice and cleaned up. :o)

Here are the carrots I pulled today. You'll notice some of them are purple. They are Purple Haze, and they are incredibly sweet. Delicious!

RPF - Baby Signs!

2009-01-23T10:44:00.004-06:00

Random Poll Friday is back! Today, the topic is using sign language with babies. One of the comments on my previous post about signing with babies talked about using sign language and possible speech delay. Sorry to call you out Tearese, but I'm curious about your observations. :o) You mentioned you observed that babies who used signs talked later. Do you mean later compared to Elora? Is it possible that Elora's speech development is just advanced for her age? I actually believe that using sign language with babies could enhance their speech development, since you not only show the sign, but say the word out loud along with it. I don't know very many people who used sign language with their babies, but the ones I do know don't seem to be delayed in their speech at all. So tell me more about it! All of you who have anything at all to say on the topic! :o)

ETA: If the poll doesn't show up, try refreshing your screen. It seems to be having some issues...

CPSIA

2009-01-21T12:57:00.004-06:00

I'm sure most of you have heard of this already. For those of you who haven't, please go and read this article, which was published in Forbes magazine. This law was NOT thought through, and the impact it could have on small businesses, and even YOU, could be huge. Love cool wooden toys? They soon may not be available anymore. Like to support work-at-home moms who sell cute handcrafted accessories for kids? They may be forced to shut down their websites soon. Love etsy? You may not find much there anymore after Feb. 10th, at least not much for kids. Got a lot of baby clothes and toys you don't need anymore? You better hurry and give them away before Feb. 10th. And that barely touches the surface. Go read the article for the impact this law would have. Then go and sign the petition to help stop it. Contact Consumer Protection Committee members. While legislation is certainly needed to help make toys safer for our kids, this one goes too far. By a long shot.

So Marie...

2009-01-21T12:35:00.000-06:00

...how come I haven't ever gotten an invite to your blog? Send me one, pretty please! :o) doreen1999 at yahoo dot com

Women and their wardrobe - a stereotype?

2009-01-21T11:10:00.002-06:00

Or else I'm not doing a very good job at representing my sex here, at least as far as wardrobes are concerned. When I went into our closet today, I couldn't help but notice all of Dave's pants lined up neatly in a row. All 17 pairs, not counting what he's wearing, and what's still in the laundry somewhere. So then I went on to count his long sleeve shirts. I counted 12, plus at least as many sweaters. On to the short sleeve shirts. There were close to 20. Then I turned to my side of the closet. And I wanted to cry. My wardrobe isn't even half the size of his. Not even a third! I'm not kidding you. What a sorry excuse of a woman am I??? I need help! :p

Signing time!

2009-01-20T20:41:00.003-06:00

I tried some sign language with Kaylee when she was little, but never was very consistent with it. Interestingly, she picked up airplane after only seeing it a couple of times, but never used eat or drink or whatever would have actually been useful, even after me using it for a long time. I gave up on it when she started talking. :p Now, I've been wanting to try it with Elly, to see if we could be more successful with her. I've been using the sleep sign with her for a long time now, I make the sign on my face, then on her's, and I say "schlafen gehen" (go to sleep). Tonight, Elly was especially cranky (teeth are coming in, at last!). She was tired and crying, and clinging to her dad. I wanted to take her so I could put her in bed, but she didn't want to come to me. So I made the sleep sign and said "schlafen gehen". She stopped crying, and I signed again, on my face and on her's. Then she leaned towards me, and let me take her to bed! What a smart baby. :o) Now I'm extra glad I decided to order a couple of the Signing Time DVDs (off ebay), we should all have a fun time learning!

Right!

2009-01-18T22:08:00.002-06:00

I'm supposed to actually write something! That's what this whole blog thing is all about! You'd think after more than 3 years, I'd have figured that out. :p Actually, life has just been crazy busy. My parents were in town visiting, and we all had so much fun I never got to get on the computer much. Technically, I shouldn't be on right now, either. Got dishes to do. Isn't my life exciting? I did want to share this great picture of the fruits of my labor, though. Or rather, the vegetable. Or whatever spinach is. Leafy green? Anyway, I harvested 4 pounds of it last week. And that wasn't even half of what's in my garden! I love spinach, and since my parents were in town, and they love it, I figured I'd cook some and call it a meal. This is what I grew up with. It may not look very appetizing to some of you, but trust me, it's good! Spinach cooked with some onion, then pureed. Add some salt and pepper, and some cream, and tadah, you have yourself a meal. Well, with some mashed potatoes and scrambled eggs, you know, can't JUST eat spinach. It was yummy! :o)

Totally Random

2009-01-09T20:11:00.003-06:00

I should post. I should blog. Instead, I'm sitting here whining because my face is hurting. Well, half my face. Sinus infection, anyone? I hope I'm going to feel better tomorrow. I have lots of thoughts rambling through my head, but my brain isn't really functioning. Today was all about survival, really. Elly has a head cold, too, so she's been extra fussy. I hit a real low point today, where Elly was whining, and Kaylee wasn't exactly happy, either, because she was tired. And I was feeling, well, crappy. Pardon my French. :p In order not to have a complete breakdown, I decided to get out of the house. Killed three birds with one stone. I put Elly in the sling, so she got some cuddle-with-mommy-time. I put Kaylee in the stroller, where she promptly fell asleep. And I went for a walk. The weather was beautiful, I got some exercise, and we all got a nice dose of Vitamin D, you know, to help our frail immune systems. Most importantly, it helped save my sanity. At least for a little while. Now the kids are all in bed, and I'm nursing my poor aching body with some good herbal tea and other potions and pills that should help clear my stuffed up head. I'll leave you with that. Good night.

Cuteness

2009-01-08T09:38:00.003-06:00

Lettuce, anyone?

2009-01-04T13:38:00.003-06:00

Or how about spinach? Wow, I can't believe how much the garden has grown in just one week! When I went out to look at it yesterday, I almost couldn't believe it was my garden. I don't know what happened, but everything seems to have doubled in size since we left for AZ Christmas Day. A week ago, the sugar snap peas didn't even have any flowers. Today, I spotted two pods! The parsley seemed to finally start growing, and now it's huge (not full grown by any means, but seriously twice as big as last week). The green onions are about ready to harvest, when I was still thinning out some to use in a salad a week ago. I'm in awe! Yay for gardening. :o)

Happy New Year!

2009-01-01T09:28:00.001-06:00

I can't believe it's 2009. The last year sure was a busy and exciting one for us, and brought a lot of changes to our family. We'll see what 2009 has in store for us. I keep hoping for life to slow down a bit, and for this next year to be a bit less exciting than the last year was, but I'm not holding my breath. Hope this next year is good to all of you! :o)

We're still alive!

2008-12-31T23:02:00.003-06:00

Barely. :p What a crazy week this has been so far! Time flies when you're having fun. :p Monday, we all left to drive up to Williams, AZ. We spent the night at the Grand Canyon Railway hotel, and then rode the train up to the Grand Canyon on Tuesday. That was... Crazy! And exhausting. And fun. The train ride is a little over 2 hours, and by the end Elly had about had it. She was done. She let everyone else know, too. Once we got off the train, Bryan needed to go potty. Grandpa was nice enough to take him. He made it all the way to the bathroom, but not quite on the toilet. So, there we were, at the Grand Canyon, and Bryan peed his pants. Poor kid. Grandma and Grandpa got on their way to find a store somewhere to get some new pants for Bryan, while we took the kids to catch a glimpse of the Canyon, and then play in the snow. There was lots of snow, but fortunately it was warm enough that day that Bryan didn't seem too bothered by his wet pants. We somehow managed to play for a couple of hours, and eventually Grandma and Grandpa found us again, and Bryan got some dry pants. At this point, kids were starting to get tired and grumpy, but we still had some time to kill. So what do we do when the going gets tough? Well, the tough get ice cream, of course! No kidding! We found a nice sunny spot to sit down, and the kids all enjoyed an ice cream cone. The time eventually came for us to get back on the train, and the ride back to the hotel was just as exciting as the ride up. I will spare you details of on-board entertainment. Let's just say cowboys are not my thing, and the passenger something-or-other assistant really needs to chill out... She literally kicked Dave off the train at the end, instead of realizing that maybe he could have used some help. Since, you know, he had an array of bags, one kid without shoes that had to be carried, another kid having a melt-down because she couldn't be carried... Not nice. Overall, a really fun day, but quite exhausting. The hotel was awesome, with some great food and an indoor pool. How much better can life get? :o) Well, we're all back at our other hotel now, and will be for a couple more days. More fun to follow! That's all for now, gotta go, baby needs some nursies. TTYL, my blogging friends. And my one-and-only blog fan, Emily, who was excited to meet me today. It was fun talking to you! :o)

The fun begins!

2008-12-26T15:19:00.002-06:00

After an awesome Christmas morning at home, we hit the road (and skies) yesterday afternoon. We made it to Phoenix and our hotel fairly late, but everyone was nice enough to sleep in this morning. Seeing as we're cool like that, we got right down to business and had my awesome friend Chalice come to our hotel room to take pictures of the kids. We were going to do them outside, but as luck would have it, it was rather cold and windy. So Chalice brought all of her equipment to our room and set up shop there. The kids actually cooperated really well, which was amazing. It's not always easy when there's four to go around... Even Elly hammed it up for the camera! You can see some of the pictures on her blog, Photography by Chalice Leaman. Our's are the "w kids", in case you haven't seen enough here. ;o) Go check them out, they're really cute! :o)

Now off for some family fun time!

Thank you!

2008-12-24T12:45:00.001-06:00

Thank you to those of you who donated to baby Kaiya's funeral fund. Through all of the generous donations, her parents were able to pay for her funeral costs, just in time for Christmas. :o)

Merry Christmas!

2008-12-24T12:24:00.002-06:00

Today, we are:

dressed in shorts and t-shirts. Somehow that feels wrong...
tracking Santa.
doing lots of laundry.
doing lots of packing.
hoping that Dave won't be at work for too much longer.
playing games.
getting the house ready for visitors, who will be here to greet us when we get back from AZ!
looking forward to Santa coming, and unwrapping presents Christmas Morning.
having turkey for dinner (leftovers from Thanksgiving).
going out to see Christmas lights after it gets dark.
spending time together as a family.
looking forward to seeing family and going on the Polar Express in AZ.
enjoying our new home, all decorated for the Season.

Most importantly, we are remembering our Savior and celebrating His birth. Merry Christmas to all of you!

Oh man...

2008-12-23T20:42:00.002-06:00

...I have a headache. Today was kind of a rough day. Don't know why, really, but I've been in a horrible mood lately. Maybe it's "family reunion anxiety" setting in. Believe it or not, I'm not too fond of spending a lot of time with a lot of people. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE Dave's family. It's just that there are so many of them. And I get total overload. I'm from a rather small family (one brother, two cousins, that's it), so getting together with the in-laws is so stressful for me. I'm afraid it always brings out the worst in me. I'm really not a people person (seriously!). I love to spend time with friends and family, but not with tons of friends and tons of family. As in, it's hard for me when there are 40some people to keep up with, all at the same time. More than half of which are 15 years and under. Oy. I'd much rather just spend time with, say, one family at a time. Of course, given the size of Dave's family, and the location of everyone, that's not possible. Hence the need for the family reunion. And I'm sure it'll be fun, Dave's parents have put a lot of time and effort into coming up with a schedule and fun things to do. And I'm hoping there'll be enough wiggle room for us to be able to still get Elly's naps in (well, at least one good one each day). So, I'll just try and focus on how excited I am to see everyone, and try my hardest to be pleasant to be around and have a good time. Wish me luck! (And I love you all, Dave's family who reads my blog! :D)

Just in time!

2008-12-19T10:35:00.003-06:00

I'm 9 months old today. Look what an awesome skill I perfected this morning!

Yay for me! I've also been working hard on my pincer grasp. Mom really needs to make sure she's keeping the floors clean now, or I may come to her rescue and do the vacuuming!

I love this picture!

2008-12-17T20:44:00.002-06:00

So I was thinking today, about how Elly is just about 9 months old. She's been out longer than she was in! Somehow, that's always a big milestone to me. Like, wow, my baby is growing up. I was feeling a bit nostalgic, and looked through all of the pictures from her birth. I came across this one, and I just love all the details in it. Like, she's getting her newborn exam. On my kitchen table. I don't think I'll ever be able to get rid of that table now! It's bad enough I couldn't bring along the living room she was born in. :p Seriously, though, I love how she's on the kitchen table, getting checked over by my midwife. Notice the juice pitcher, yes, I love Pampered Chef! Notice also the empty rubbermaid container that usually has freshly ground flour in it. Why was that on the table? I have no idea. Then there's Elly's little foot. Notice her long toes? I think she got those from her dad. Notice her head, nice and round. I guess that's what happens when you just float around forever and then decide to make a mad dash for the exit. Not much time for molding! Notice also how clean she is. I don't think we gave her a bath until her umbilical cord fell off. Not even a sponge bath. We did keep her diaper area clean, of course. But I just didn't feel the need to scrub her down. I think what I like most about the picture is her finger. Notice how she's got her pinky in her mouth? She still likes to chew on her fingers like that! She almost always has one in her mouth, though not so much the pinky anymore. She's moved past that, and now prefers the index finger. She doesn't suck on them, but actually chews around. I suppose that'll work until she gets teeth. Well, without further ado, here's the picture I'm talking about. No, it's not one of those spectacular shots that come along every so often, but there's lots to love about it. :o)

Houston, we have a cruiser!

2008-12-15T18:12:00.001-06:00

No, not a yacht or a motorcycle. A human cruiser! Miss Elly is now quite confident walking along the couch by herself. My baby is growing up!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

2008-12-14T14:48:00.002-06:00

I re-decorated yesterday. I got to go shopping at Target without kids, and found lots of fun things to ~~waste~~ wisely spend money on. I had actually bought the garland with the lights for outside, but wasn't brave enough to climb up the ladder to put it up myself (I was going to put it around the arch entryway). After it sitting around the house for a while, I realized my husband was just too busy to help me put it up there, so I decided to put it elsewhere. I actually had two 25 ft. garlands, so I put one along the railing going up the stairs, and the other one around the fireplace. When I went shopping yesterday, I found a screen to put in front of the fireplace. We don't technically need one, since ours is just gas, but I thought it would look nice. See, told you I got to ~~waste~~ wisely spend some money. :p

Kale Soup recipe

2008-12-11T09:01:00.003-06:00

Here it is, ladies. Do my kids eat it, you wonder? Well, Tyler does. Bryan doesn't, but then he doesn't eat anything green, so that's not too surprising. Kaylee won't eat it from her own bowl, but will eat off her dad's plate. Go figure. :p Be warned that the recipe is one of those "throw stuff together" kind of things. There are no real precise measurements, and I think it tastes a bit different each time I make it, haha! I make this in a crock pot, cooked on high for 6 hours. You could probably cook it on the stove top, but make sure you give it enough time, otherwise it may be bitter (but don't over-cook, or it'll get a sour taste). As for amounts of stuff, it really depends on how much soup you want. If you use the max given here, you'll fill up a 6 qt. crock pot, and will have enough for, oh, I don't know, depends how well people like it, I guess. ;o)

Take the stems off of one to two bunches of kale. Cut the leaves in pieces (kind of like you may cut lettuce for a salad so it'll fit on your mouth without you making a huge mess, know what I'm talking about?). Peel and dice 4-6 medium boiling potatoes into bite size pieces (reds, yukon golds, something like that). Cut half a pound to one pound of beef into small pieces. This is optional, you can leave it out if you want to cook vegetarian. Also, if you can get your hands on grass fed beef, it'll taste tons better! Put everything in crock pot, and put in just enough water to cover everything. If you choose to go with the max amount given here, you may not be able to put enough water to completely cover the kale, as it has a tendency to float. That's okay. I usually kind of push everything down with my hands, and as long as there's enough water to cover everything while a little "compacted", it should be good. Put in a some bouillon cubes. I use two, Rapunzel Vegetable Bouillon with Herbs, I've liked that the best out of all the bouillons I've tried. Cover and cook on high for about 4 hours, then check progress, stir soup around. About an hour before the soup is done cooking, I usually thicken it. I take a non-stick pan, melt some butter in it (1/4 - 1/2 cup), then mix flour into the melted butter. Enough to make a thick paste. Then I use a ladle to get liquid from the soup to thin the flour mixture enough so I can pour it back into the soup. The flour mixture will be pretty lumpy at first, and you have to add quite a bit of liquid, a little at a time. So, add a little liquid, stir, add some more liquid, stir, etc. Once you have a smooth liquidy sauce, pour it back into the soup, stir, cover, and finish cooking. Once the soup is done, add salt and pepper to taste (note you may not need to add extra salt, depending on what kind of bouillon you use). That's it!

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

2008-12-10T21:26:00.003-06:00

Well, it's still going strong! I thought I'd quickly run out and take some more pictures, since there are no guarantees it'll still be here by morning. :p

Welcome to Texas!

2008-12-10T19:53:00.004-06:00

To start out, we will serve you a couple of tropical storms. The main course will be a category 3 hurricane. It's so strong, it will blow you away! Dessert will be a slushie, and a complementary snow cone. We hope you enjoy your stay!

Seriously, how crazy is this place? It was 77 degrees yesterday, the high today was 36. It was snowing when I drove Tyler to cub scouts. No worries, though, it's going to be back in the 70's by the weekend. :p

I'm tired

2008-12-09T22:49:00.002-06:00

Today seriously wore me out. No wonder I never want to go to the store, it's too hard with kids in tow. Well, at least when one of the kids is a baby. And when the store is Super Target, and huge. And you have to get a million things, so it takes two hours. But hey, we now have some Christmas lights outside, Tyler has jeans that fit and a pair of basketball shoes he needed, Elly has some cozy fleece sleepers, and Kaylee has some rain boots. Okay, so all but Kaylee's boots were needed, but I can't seem to be able to take her to the store without getting her something. Make that another reason I don't often go shopping. :p She's a trooper, though, so she deserves it. Right?

Flower box

2008-12-08T09:45:00.003-06:00

As you all know, I'm having a fun time with my garden. My flower box is something else I'm excited about. I've never had too much luck with flower boxes, but the one I have now is actually quite nice.

The pansies came up from seeds.

We brought this one from Utah. It was a present for Mother's Day.

Fireplace

2008-12-07T21:34:00.004-06:00

Okay, so I admit I've made fun of the fact that 99.9% of houses here have a fireplace. I mean, come on, it's Texas. Well, today I repent. I'm sorry I ever made fun of the local obsession with fireplaces. I'm sorry I suspected a ploy by the realtors to drive up home prices. Because you know what, having a fireplace is awesome! We turned ours on for the first time today. The whole family gathered in the living room, and by the light of the Christmas decorations and the fireplace, we sat and had a wonderful time together, celebrating Advent, and the Christmas season. I love this time of year, and I love that I now have a fireplace. Sure, it may limit the possibilites for living room decorating and arranging of furniture, but it sure is nice and cozy when it's a frosty 50 degrees outside. :p

Nikolaus

2008-12-06T07:59:00.007-06:00

Since we're German and all (well, one of us, and 4 that are half), we get to celebrate Nikolaus today! It's a fun little tradition leading into Christmas. Saint Nicholas comes during the night from the 5th to the 6th of December, and puts little treats and presents in the kids' shoes (which they set out the night of the 5th, before they go to bed). He's not to be confused with Santa Claus, who's a completely different person! Often, we lead into it on the 5th by having a cozy afternoon spent as a family, baking cookies, reading stories, etc. Due to Dave having a huge project due at work soon, we kinda had to skip over that part this year. Maybe we'll bake some cookies today!

Yum!

2008-12-03T20:15:00.003-06:00

I went out for my first Fall harvest today. The kale looked ready, so I decided to pick a few leaves and make some kale soup. I love kale soup! The best thing about it, besides the good taste, is that I can make it in the crock pot. Put it in sometime in the morning, and then not have to worry about cooking when it comes closer to dinner time. Love it!

I realize it may not look the most appetizing, but trust me, it's yummy. Karatemommy can attest to that. Right??? :p

I WON, I WON, I WON!!!

2008-12-02T12:27:00.002-06:00

I won one of the prizes for blogging daily during NaBloPoMo. How cool is that? A set of handmade lace ornaments. Awesome! :D

If you have a dog...

2008-12-01T09:25:00.002-06:00

...please don't let him/her run around outside without supervision. That's especially true if you have two dogs. And if they're fairly big. I don't care how nice or tame they are, and how they would never bite anyone. Because they will freak me out. Especially when I'm out walking with my 3 year old and my baby in the double stroller. Yes, it will scare me when they come right up to me to sniff, and then run around me and the stroller a few times as I keep walking. Yes, it will cause visions of news headlines about mauled children to pop up in my head. No, it's not the way I want to end my morning walk.