A Busy Night

It's Vita Mix time at a local store! I've been by twice during the demonstration period (just by happenstance) and stopped for the samples both times. Since I have a Vita Mix and love, love, love it, I am always on the look out for more recipes. The lady running the demo is the same lady I met running the same demo around the time I got my VM about a year or so ago. She gave me a yummy smoothie recipe that I've made regularly since then and a few new recipes tonight. There were some other very cool people hanging out watching the demo and sampling the smoothies; it was fun to chat with them and tell them how much I enjoy my Vita Mix.

While the little ones, DH and I were watching the Vita Mix demo, The Eldest was in her art class getting her final critique. The assignment she had to complete was an "altered book"; I think she did quite well with it. She chose the book "The Blade Itself", one of her favorites. She went through the book and cut out key quotes, arranged them on paper, and decorated accordingly. That doesn't begin to describe the time and effort she put into it; she was working down to the wire this afternoon. I am very proud of her.

Speaking of my artistic Eldest, here's a pic of her from back around Halloween. She was going to a laser tag event with a "Lady Gaga" theme.



Since Martha Jr. helped her out (with things like feeding her dog while she was working on projects and studying for finals) The Eldest promised to get both of the younger ones going on World of Warcraft. They're sitting over there now designing characters and getting started. My computer nerds! Well, guess that's what happens when Dad is a computer engineer. They cut their teeth on computers so it was only a matter of time before they all got on WoW. I'm surprised I've been able to hold them off this long; sigh.

PS: The Eldest says to look here for a pic of her in her normal state.

The Middle Child Cooks!

The Middle Child cooked dinner for the family for the first time yesterday, almost entirely on her own. She made Pasta and Bean Soup, a vegetarian meal, which turned out perfectly. Keep in mind she's 8 years old, just so you're properly impressed. (OK, she'll be 9 next month, but still.) She's always enjoyed cooking and helping in the kitchen to the point where it's difficult to keep her out of there when I'm trying to cook. We had to teach her how to use a knife safely or else she'd cut things up anyway, risking life and limb, and especially fingers. When she cut herself trying to wash my favorite knife a few weeks ago, I sat down with her to watch the Good Eats episode on knives and cutting techniques. (I'm happy they aired that particular episode right when we needed it!) Alton Brown put a lot of emphasis on safety and demonstrated how to wash a knife by laying it against a cutting board in the sink, which is how she washes her knife now. And oh, yes, she has her own knife. The adult knives were too big for her so we found a chef's knife in a smaller size that suits her perfectly; she is so proud. She loves cutting up veggies!

She's been making scrambled eggs for a while now. That was another example of her determination to cook. She bugged me to teach her how to make scrambled eggs for the longest time but it's not something I make often so I put her off. Well, that didn't stop her. When I left her with our babysitter she asked the sitter to teach her. Our sitter is a love and has a hard time saying no to things like that, so she taught her, and for the next month she was making scrambled eggs left and right. I bought an Egg Genie, the kind that hard boils eggs, and she learned how to use it and now makes deviled eggs. She also decided she wanted to make guacamole when I had some avocados and now has that recipe down pat. Her guacamole is pretty good, too, I must say. With all of her practice on eggs and the other recipes she's learned to make on her own, she was ready for a full meal. I'm so proud!

I told her the other day she's a foodie, that's all there is to it. She likes to eat good, healthy food, (she's the least picky of my children), she likes to cook, and she likes to cook for other people. She's curious about food and recipes and wants to learn how to make new things. I'd say that's the very essence of a foodie!

PS: I'm adding Spatulatta, the kid's cooking website, to my list of websites I like in honor of The Middle Child. If you have a budding cook in your family that's a good website to check out.

How to Torture a 7 Year Old

I bought these cheap little "finger lights" at the grocery store for Halloween the other day. The Youngest, aka The Wild Child, found them and has been absolutely BESIDE himself wanting to open them and check them out. I won't let him since they are for a Halloween event we are planning to attend. You would think he was dying with all the drama! PLEASE Mom, please, we need to test them before we go, he says. Can we just try them just for a minute? Please? And so on and so forth. I am standing firm, however; he must learn to deal with delayed gratification. He really is making progress, though; he's respected my "NO" and hasn't opened them anyway, so he's maturing a little bit. There's hope for my boy, there's hope!

The Youngest

My baby boy is 7 today. No more babies in the house, not even close. I reminded DH what happened when The Eldest was around this age (a touch younger, actually)- my biological clock went crazy and we had to have two more kids! He asked if I wanted him to slap me around until I got over it; I said I'm over it already. My biological clock is DONE, the shop is closed, and whatever other metaphors would be appropriate in this situation. Now the long wait for grand kids. (Hopefully VERY long; as much as I would love grand kids my own are too young for quite some time yet!)

PS: Photo credit goes to DH who loves to play with lighting.

A Wedding!

The Middle Child is going to be in a wedding in the fall. She's so excited; we went to the bridal store so she could try on her dress tonight. She fell in love with it, especially because, in addition to being lovely, "it's really comfortable". ;) Her only complaint was "it's heavy", but that didn't seem to bother her too much. She's ultra picky about her clothes so I was kind of worried about it, but now I'm breathing a sigh of relief about that aspect of things anyway. I'm a little nervous about the delivery, though. They had to order the dress and it's not coming until a few weeks before the wedding, then it will have to be altered. If anything is wrong, like they send the wrong color or something, we're up a creek. The people at the bridal shop were freaking me out about it, too- they were telling tales of mis-ordered flower girl dresses past. When we were placing the actual order for her white dress with apple trim the guy was reading off the computer and said "that's white and banana, right?"

Oh, how I hope he was joking!

The Middle Child

We had a lovely afternoon with The Middle Child and her Girl Scout troop yesterday. We went to a local attraction and toured that for about an hour then went to a nearby park for her end of the year ceremony. It's been raining non-stop for a month or so now but it held off for us, thank goodness, although we did hear the lightening detectors a few times; yipes! The girls were able to participate more in the ceremony this time; it wasn't all me standing in front of everyone gabbing. The less I do and the more they do the better! :) I made "hobo bags" out of bandannas and dowels, which we call s'more sticks in Girl Scouts, to hold the patches they earned throughout the year. They were cute as a button and the girls got a kick out of them. This was a family event so all three kids and DH were there. (The Niece is home with her parents for a few weeks.) The families were all supposed to take a dessert to share with everyone; we took a watermelon. DH cut it up on the spot and was amazed that the kids all went for the melon over the sweets, doughnuts, cookies, and brownies, that the other families brought. Oh, they went for the sweets too, but the watermelon was a definite hit.

Even in homeschooling families we still have our end of the school year events to participate in. We follow a lot of the same rhythms everyone else follows, it seems. The Youngest's soccer party, The Middle Child's Girl Scout ceremony, then next week The Eldest has her Girl Scout ceremony, which are all start of summer markers for us. We slow down a bit and the kids wind up in the pool more. It's nice; I look forward to the change in our routine.

My Son

Soccer season is over. It was kind of a bust; the last game was canceled due to standing water on the fields and they can't offer a make up day since the fields are undergoing renovation as of yesterday. I didn't want The Youngest and his team mates to be disappointed so I called the coach and offered to have everyone from the team come over to our house for an impromptu end of the season party. I had cupcakes, after all. I managed to call everyone (and actually reached a live person for most of the boys) and they came over. The coach picked up the team trophies and brought those. I set up a table and a bunch of chairs out under a tree next to the lake and all of the snacks (another parent brought goodies too) and we had a party! Coach handed out the trophies by calling all of the boys one by one and giving out high fives and we took loads of pictures. At that point the storm clouds and thunder threatened so everyone took that as a cue to leave. Only one boy fell in the lake so I consider it a huge success!

The Youngest is too cute for words with his trophy. It's his very first one and he is so proud of it. He cleaned and polished it thoroughly before placing it next to all of his dad's trophies in the computer room window. I could just burst with how much I love my kids.

Some Days Are Like That...

Even in Australia...

Quick, name that book! (I'm quoting a children's favorite.)

So today wasn't the best of days. I've over done things recently and the fibromyalgia is flaring up, to the point that I was shaky earlier in the day. It was hard to get things done and I had a Brownie meeting and soccer practice to deal with. That doesn't sound so bad on the surface, but there's all the cleaning up and preparation for the Brownie meeting (I rarely have time to prep ahead so I'm scrambling on the day of) then the hassle of getting The Youngest dressed and out the door for practice, and if you have a kid in any kind of activity that requires special gear you know what I mean! Theoretically he's supposed to put his soccer shoes, shin guards, and ball in his soccer bag as soon as he gets home from a game or practice. In reality? Doesn't happen. Shoes and shin guards were buried in the pit that is his room and he wasn't so interested in finding them. The consequence was he either found them and could go to practice, or he had to spend the time all the way up until practice was over cleaning his room. This is a child who needs constant supervision and micro-management in order to get him to do ANYTHING, and I'm already running on E, but micro-manage I did. I sat on a little chair in the doorway and pointed to dirty clothes on the floor, a huge component of the mess, that he had to pick up and put in the hamper. As expected, he finally cleaned up enough that the floor was peeking through in spots, and the shoes and shin guards were found. I keep his socks in MY sock drawer so I knew where those were, and he was already wearing shorts and a T-shirt, so we were finally, 20 minutes late, out the door. Blech.

I usually try to take my daily walk while The Youngest practices; I thought it would be best to skip it today! I sat and worked on a menu plan and grocery list for the rest of the week instead, which I won't post this week. (It's all a bunch of repeat stuff anyway, and nothing exciting.) After stopping by the grocery store, we headed home where there is a visiting puppy. The Niece and the friend she drove down with (they arrived this morning) found an abandoned puppy at a rest stop on the way down. She's cute as a button and looks kind of like a lab to me. The Niece says she thinks the puppy is around 2 months old; looks about right, I suppose. The kids are all, of course, head over heels in love with the dog. NO, we can NOT have a dog! I can barely keep up with cleaning up after the lot of them as it is! Plus there's the sleep thing. I have sleep issues with the fibromyalgia; I have a lot of problems when my sleep is interrupted, and a dog will bark and need to go out, among other things, which all has the potential to disrupt sleep. I just can't do it! She's so darn cute, though. Those big puppy eyes, and that lumbering puppy gait...she was chasing things in the back yard today and it was melt your heart adorable. Sigh.

Anyway, this one is going home with The Niece's friend at the end of the week, so it's a moot point! (Whew.) ;)

PS: The quoted children's book is Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good Very Bad Day

Travel Preparations

The Eldest and I will be traveling in a couple of months taking our first trip to Europe for her 16th birthday present (a little early). This is the trip of a lifetime for me, the one I've wanted to take since I was a teenager. I'm so thankful I can give this gift to her at such a young age; the educational opportunities provided by world travel are unparalleled, for starters. I also have this funny feeling she's going to travel when she's a young adult so I want her to acquire some travel skills while she's still under parental supervision! ;) We're in full out preparation mode now. Even though we're going budget, I've been shopping for appropriate (and inexpensive) clothing. I'm NOT a fashionista by any stretch of the imagination and I pay little attention to my clothes beyond trying to look neat and tidy; The Eldest seems to have acquired the same values, although the neat and tidy thing can be a little sketchy were she's concerned. Given that, I realized we don't really have much to wear on a trip. We don't want to take a lot, but some appropriate clothing a little dressier than our usual jeans/jean shorts is definitely in order. (We hear they'll spit on you in Paris if you wear jeans and sneakers.) (OK, maybe that's a little drastic, but I'm just sayin'.) We spent this afternoon at a couple of local discount retailers trying on clothes and actually managed to find a few things and have fun at the same time. I really enjoy her company; she's a delight to hang out with. I frequently say to my kids "how did I get so lucky that I have the 3 of you?" because I am truly, truly blessed with each of them.