Still Here

I am still here! Crazy busy... but alive! I miss blogging :( ~K

Snoring Husband's, Taco Bell, and Fat Cupid Cracks (Why does anyone read this blog anyway?)

It is nearly midnight, and here I am, unable to sleep because SOMEONE will not stop snoring. What a way to usher in Valentine's Day, loud, rumbling snorts. Do you know what I want for Valentine's Day??? Snore strips! Yes, and I want him to wear 6 at once, just to assure me ONE good night of sleep. No flowers, no candy, just snore strips.

I've yelled, I've kicked him, I've pleaded, I even considered smothering him with a pillow, but darn it, I love the guy. So here I sit, blogging at midnight, waiting for the fatigue to be so great, that the rumbling bed and monstrous noises won't affect me.

In this tired state, I think I'll write random Valentine's facts about.. well... me.

1. I hate mushy cards. If my husband wrote me a poem, or got me a card with a bunch of sappy words, I'd barf (internally that is). I mean, I'd try to be nice, but I just can't do the mushy stuff with men. Now a friend could write me a sweet card or poem and I'd love it, but if my husband, or dad did that, I'd get uncomfortable and nauseous. Yeah, I need therapy... whatever.

2. Every year my husband and I get each other a Valentine with a butt on it (usually a half-naked fat cupid, or a card about the crack of "Don"). It's a terrible tradition we started our first year of marriage. It was a coincidence the first year. Ever since, we have searched high and low for the perfect "butt" Valentine to give each other (you'd be surprised how many are out there!). I should state that my husband and I both share the "no sappy card" rule, AND a really odd sense of humor. I also feel the need to tell you, one year I shirked the tradition and bought him a "normal" card and he was dreadfully hurt.

3. We eat Taco Bell every Valentine's day. Yes, another odd tradition that started our first year of marriage. I love the idea, really, I do, but over the years, I have grown to hate Taco Bell. I wish it had been a Gelato tradition or a Starbucks... oh well. Would it be too crude to add that Taco Bell gives "someone" (NOT ME) terrible gas? Gosh, can't a girl get a snore and fart free Valentine's day?

4. I don't like Valentine's Day gifts. I know, I'm starting to sound like a scrooge here, but who wants a romantic gift out of an obligation that is forced by retailers? Jewelry and flowers ANY other day of the year means SO much more.

5. I am obsessed with Valentine's Day decorations. See... I'm not totally anti Valentine's Day. I love pink and red hearts! I am so girly that this holiday just "fits me". I get all giggly when I see frosted pink cookies, and heart doilies. I love to smoother my house in hearts and flowers! My boys are threatening to move out.

6. Every year around Valentine's Day, my mom makes my FAVORITE food in the entire world. Pink frosted heart shaped sugar cookies. I told her this year I would only have 1800 calories worth (I'm serious here; I plotted it out and everything). Therefore, my mom graciously gave some to me, and then packaged up the rest in pretty baskets for me to give to my friends. Would you believe it only took me two whole days to eat them all? Not a single friend got a crumb. Now when I call my mom, I ask for the "Evil Cookie Baker", or the "Purveyor of Fatness".

* On a side note, I spent nearly 4 hours this week on the stupid elliptical torture device to keep from gaining those well deserved cookie pounds.

7. My five-year-old son wrote me a card with a mushy poem on it and I cried, hugged him, and got all sappy.

8. I have volunteered to help at all four of my kids Valentine's Day parties at school. I think I have lost my mind!

9. People who eat healthy on Valentine's Day suck the joy right out of it. My son's teacher wants a healthy Valentine's Day party with a veggie tray and milk. WHAT? These are second graders! That is just cruel. I was in charge of the milk... and I bought chocolate! HA HA HA! I also shoved a bunch of candy in all the kids Valentines. I get being healthy 99.9 % of the time... but today? It's like the person who gives raisins or pencils on Halloween. I mean common! Were YOU ever a kid?

10. The day after Valentine's Day I always have the worst chocolate hangover... and think the grouchy people with the raisins aren't as dumb as I thought.

What is that I hear? Nothing? Could it be that his marathon snore session is over? I best be off to bed before it kicks back up again. ~K

One Month Later

Here I am, one month into our public school adventure. How have things changed?

Well, I have a lot less time than I used too. Surprised? Me too! All this time I thought I would have freed up by putting my kids in public school, just isn't there. Don't get me wrong, I obviously don't have little kiddos messing up the house, or hours of discipline and education to administer, but an entire new set of activities have quickly taken its place.

I have been enjoying the gym 3 - 4 times a week. Yeah, I know, that might sound like a benefit, but who really wants to go and sweat for 2 hours, while wearing unflattering Lycra, and huffing to keep up with a 70-year-old man, (he kicks my elliptical butt)? Not my idea of fun, but the jeans are getting quite loose, so there ARE benefits.

I have been helping at the school quite a bit. This has been the MOST rewarding. My kids really don't need any help (honor roll babies thanks to that homeschool edge) but I do get to pour energy into the needy kids in their classes. I have one little boy who doesn't have a mother that loves to follow me around. He asked for my phone number... he he. I've met a five-year-old girl who is an orphan. When she asked me why I help out in class, I told her because G*** is my son, and I love him and want to be near him. She flung her arms around me and said, "Oh, that is so wonderful". This little girl is un bathed and neglected, so when I come into their class, she comes up to me and plants herself on my lap and stares. "I love your pretty hair, and your pretty face. I love that you smell like flowers, and that you wear earrings." It brings tears to my eyes. I want to take her home and clean her up! Let her touch her own soft hair, let her smell sweet lotion on her own skin, give her the confidence to see her own pretty face.

I've been quilting! YES my friends, I am tapping into my inner domestic self! I'm almost finished with an actual quilt. OK, maybe it's more of a wall hanging, but at least it's more than a pillow!

I have been cooking quite a bit more now that I can. Our meals are healthier, and I've been saving some $$$!

The best thing I've been doing with my time is a regular quiet time. Not just a little devotion, but a good hour of prayer and scriptures. It has been wonderful to enter into this much-needed season of spiritual growth.

Now before you think it's all just pure bliss, I should also tell you that my kids are exposed to a whole lot of GARBAGE! Daily, they come home with things I wish they didn't know. From perversion, to faulty science. We are dealing with issues daily. My daughter does not care for her teacher, as he often talks about how great "Hillary" is, calls Huckabee, Huckleberry, and tells the class that the world is ending due to global warming. Only the Holy Spirit has kept me from flying off the handle here, but God has said "wait... wait until the time is right."

My youngest son doesn't like school, and often cries in the morning about going. He told me the other morning that he couldn't go to school because school was from the devil (yeah, he's a manipulative genius like that). No, he doesn't really believe that, but he's tried everything else. One morning while waiting for the bus, I asked him "honey, why do you want to stay home so bad?" I figured he would say "because I miss my mom" or "because I like learning at home". Nope, you know what he said? "I miss my tendo (Nintendo)". Therefore, I kissed his little cheek, zipped up his jacket, and put him on the bus.

Kids are mean. Teachers can be liberals. Recess aids are scary. School is rough! Do I love it? Heck no. Yet as I sometimes desire to yank my kids out, I hear God's gentle reminder "I called you here, remember?"

God is actually revealing a lot about the whys I have been called out of homeschooling. It was my vision. Not my family’s vision. While it may be a great vision, it was time for me to step out of spiritual authority, and let my husband step up. Oh my, does this take faith! As I step out, I wonder, will my shoes be filled? Yet I know God would not have me step down, unless it IS his intention to put my husband in his rightful place.

Can I say it again? It is so hard to let go! My hands could no longer hold onto my vision. While it might fall into ruins at my feet, my husband will undoubtedly be called to pick it up. Will he obey his call?

Good Bye T.V... I Want My Life Back

I wrestle with so many things with "fuzzy" lines of morality. Homeschool vs public, secular music, tv. If only you could step inside my head for a moment, you would understand the constant state of turbulence it is in. While I can so easily slip into legalism, I can also fall the other way too.

For most of our married life, my husband and I didn't have a TV. We stood against what we knew it would do to our minds, and the minds of our children. Well, we all have weak moments, and last Spring we decided to get the Dish. It all started harmlessly with us wanting to hear the news (our local paper is quite insufficient). Last summer, I got a phone call offering a special 3 month trial on a "package" programing. Tempted by the bargain, and my desire to watch the Travel channel I agreed. What's the harm in three months? Right?

Six months later, we not only still have these channels, but we have made TV our family hobby. We used to read, talk, play games, and explore the outdoors. Our time as a family knitted us together, it kept us unique. Now, the second my husband gets home the TV goes on, and stays on until bed. Even our weekends have slowly started to have the TV fill it's hours.

Our sensitivity has gone way down to the terrible things it indoctrinates us with. We used to be disgusted with most programs, and turn them off. Now I hear words and ideals my children should never hear, being force feed to them while us, their parents sit iddley by.

Today, I got rid of the TV. Not the literal box, it sits silently in my living room, closed behind hutch doors, but it's forced content is gone. Not even local channels come in, and I couldn't be happier.

My conviction to get rid of it started the day I got it. Sadly, it took evidence of rotting fruit to get me to act on that conviction. Now, like a weight lifted off my shoulders, it is gone! Obedience feels good.

Before I go, I want to share with you a comment that really spoke to me from my last post.

When I was very young, we didn't have television. When we finally got it, there were few shows on and a lot of dead time where the television, if turned on, looked like snow. It was really a novelty and when used, it was a family event, not something to keep boredom at bay.

When I was a kid, we used our imaginations (a lot). I remember being engrossed in digging a hole to China (for days!) We would put our ears to the ground and convince each other that we could hear people speaking Chinese. I remember building a city for fairies to live in. I remember looking for four leaf clovers for hours on end. I remember hop scotch, jacks, marbles, and jumpropes.

I remember mud pies, daisy chains, and setting a trap to catch squirrels (never did catch one but almost did a few times). We made bug hospitals and I remember playing hide and seek with all the kids in the neighborhood after dark on warm summer evenings. I remember snow forts, sledding, and snowball fights.

When it was too cold to be outside, I remember listening to the radio (They didn't have talk shows but they had comedy skits and stories and I could close my eyes and listen to more than just music). I wrote poetry and stories, we created plays and put together circus acts. I still remember painting baloons black to look like huge barbells and making a lion's mane out of an old dust mop my mom had.

We spread a blanket over the dining room table and made a fort. We took all the cushions off the furniture and pretended they were boats floating on a sea of carpet. We took an old mattress and spent hours sliding down the basement stairs on it. It was just as fun as sledding and much warmer. Cardboard boxes were turned in to cars, airplanes and doll houses.

As I got older, I learned to bake cookies and bread and took them to neighbors. I had embroidery projects that I could work on. I put models together and painted them. We pretended we were secret agents and left secret messages for each other. Oddly enough, one of the last times I went home for a reunion, we talked about this and checked our hiding place and found the last (secret agent) message we had created still in that spot.

All of these things were done with a sense of wonder. Anything was possible when I was a child.

Television, the internet, and video games have changed all that. Our children are being forced to grow up too fast and because they are inundated with "reality" they aren't being given a chance to develop their imagination. I think it's kind of tragic that our children can't think of anything to do if it doesn't entail something that entertains them. Instead, they should be learning to entertain themselves.

What's really sad is that if you mention most of these activities to kids today, they will turn their noses up and say that it doesn't sound fun to them. That's what a loss of innocense does.

Well, enough from an old woman, I'm going to step off my soapbox and go visit my fairy village. ~ GG

AMEN!

What Do You Do About Downtime?

When I was homeschooling, one of my biggest problems was what to do with the kids during "downtime". You know, that time after the school and "kid" chores are done, and before the afternoon activities start (between 11:30 and 3:30).

Why would I ask this now, as my kids have been in school for the last month? Several reasons. 1. Snow days (which we have had quite a few of) 2. Summer 3. If I ever decide to homeschool again, this issue WILL need to be dealt with. (I should have asked this question a long time ago.)

As I go about my daily chores, my kids gravitate toward the TV, or video games. It seems like such a pathetic waste of time. I am just NOT one of those moms who can get her kids to work on chores all afternoon. I bring out the books, and color crayons, but those seem to be short term fixes. Gosh I guess I'm just not that creative.

So, what do you do to keep your kids constructively busy. Whether it be during your homeschool day, or the summer months. I really DO want your help here!

Thrifty Recipe Swap

Over at my friend Gayle's blog, she is having a thrifty recipe swap. Isn't that a FANTASTIC idea! We all get bored with the same ol' recipes. It's nice to find some budget friendly variety!

For 15 years I was a vegetarian, and let me tell you, it's a whole lot cheaper! While my family occasionally eats meat now, we still eat vegetarian 4 - 5 nights a week. Here is one of our family favorites. It's on the super frugal side, it's healthy, and SO delicious. Oh, and the best part, ALL of my kids love it, and none of us like peas. It's THAT good!

Fresh Green Pea Soup and Cottage Cheese Dill Bread

Fresh Green Pea Soup
1 Tbs butter
1 c minced onion
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 c veggie broth, chicken broth, or water
4 C fresh or frozen peas
1 c milk (low fat is fine)
black pepper to taste

Up to 3 Tbs fresh or 1 Tbs dried:
Basil, dill, tarragon, parsley, chives
(this is your choice. I have found dill to be the best, and I often add chives and tarragon too. Fresh herbs are the best in the summer when my herb garden is growing. This time of year I make it with dried herbs and again, I think the dill should be the prominent herb)

Melt butter in a soup pot. Add onion and salt and cook on medium until the onion is soft (8 - 10 min).

Add the water and bring to a boil. Lower heat, cover, and simmer about 10 min. Add the peas, cover and remove from heat. Let stand for 5 min (or until the peas are tender)

Puree the soup with the milk in a food processer or blender, then return to the pot.

Heat soup gently. Add your own personal selection on minced fresh, or dried herbs.

*This soup is also great served cold on a warm summer day!


Cottage Cheese Dill Bread
I always serve this bread with the soup. It's great by itself, or with cream cheese and thin slices of cucumbers.

A little butter or oil for the pan
2 c white flour (I often use spelt flour with wonderful results)
2 t baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 t salt
1 c cottage cheese
2 eggs
6 Tbs milk
1/4 c honey or sugar
4 Tbs melted butter
3 Tbs fresh dill, or 1 Tbs dried

Preheat oven to 350 F. Lightly grease medium-size loaf pan.

Sift together (honestly, I usually don't sift to save time) flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Make a well in the center.

Combine cottage cheese, eggs, milk, honey, and melted butter in a separate bowl. Mix well. Add to the dry ingredients along with the dill, and mix just enough to blend. The batter is fairly stiff.

Spread evenly into loaf pan. Let it bake 50 min, or until knife inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes before you remove from the pan, then cool on rack for another 30 minutes before slicing.

These recipes serve about 4 adults. Because our kids are still little (we have 4 kids), we can get away with not doubling it ... yet. However, if your family is larger, or "big eaters" you may want to double it. ~K

Oh, and I've got to give credit where is is due. These great recipes come from the cookbook "The Enchanted Broccoli Forest" by Mollie Katzen. The entire cookbook is phenomenal!

Domestic Goddess Personified

Anyone who knows me, knows that I have a bit of an inferiority complex when it comes to "crafty" things. While I love being a mother and a homemaker, my domestic talents are sadly "lacking".

Several years ago, I had this lovely neighbor who wore pretty skirts, sewed aprons, and wore a bun in her hair. Best of all, she made her own bread! She was a domestic goddess personified. So, in effort to claim some of that goddess vibe as my own I decided to start making MY own bread. The first 15 loaves resembled bricks. After many tears I finally started to make the dough rise, and after several years I FINALLY got the hang of it. I'm just not quick to pick these things up!

Two years ago, we put our little boys in soccer. I noticed a few soccer moms sitting all bundled up at the games, with a thermos of hot cocoa at their side, crocheting cute little hats for their boys. Oh yes! I wanted to be THAT mom! So, I went off to the craft store, and bought everything I needed to create my crochet masterpiece.

The following Sunday I bundled myself up all adorable and soccer mom like, put some cocoa in a mug, and headed off to the soccer field. With crochet needles in hand, I started on a scarf for my mom. Who else here still wants to make projects to give to their mom? I can always count on her smiling and saying it's beautiful no matter how crappy it looks. I just love moms.

It started out just fine, but it kept getting bigger. I couldn't figure it out! Finally I looked down, and realized my scarf was in the shape of a V. If I folded it in half it resembled a thong. Perfect.... I crocheted my mother a "thong" for Christmas.

I could continue with the domestic tragedies, like the time I set our beach house on fire while cooking crab, or the petite fours I made with salt instead of sugar, but I will spare you.

Today however, I had a domestic TRIUMPH! My mom bought me a new sewing machine as an early birthday present. I had several scraps of fabric laying around from other numerous projects "gone bad", so I decided to try and make a quilt. OK, maybe just a pillow... baby steps.

Guess what! I DID IT! If only you could have heard the squeals of delight as I pieced this thing together! I don't think y'all can comprehend how dang excited I am! I danced, I called friends and family to share the good news, every time I walk by the little 14 X 14 scrap of fabric I giggle!

So, here is proof of my inner domesticated self unleashed! (Ugh.. that sounded kind of liberal. How about my inner domesticated conservative self unleashed? Better?)



Here it is! Isn't it beautiful! It really is a pillow... I just don't have any pillow stuff to stick inside.


Here I am posing with my creation. Do you see my joy? I think I look a little psycotic, but that's OK. Unleashing one's domestic self does that ( ;