wrenjaneandben

tunnel vision

2012-01-23T05:45:00.000-08:00

I am full of great big hard things to write about and empty of blog-sized topics.

When I get energy to make something, I find it's -just- to make something, not to document it or share it.

And my parenting days. It seems like I'm holding them to close to me right now. Challenges, sleepless nights, a garage that looks like The Room of Requirement and is in desperate need of some Fiendfyre (and yes, Thank God, I had to look up how to spell that.)

We have all of that going on, we are still here. Making chore charts, doing spelling homework, changing diapers, gardening, feeding chickens, making pies and socks. Watching Sherlock and Downton Abbey.

I am just narrowing down these days. I have exactly -so- much energy for social engagement, and I can't spend it all in one place.

irresolute

2012-01-05T08:31:00.000-08:00

My resolutions this year.... let's see..

Last year I resolved to make socks AND I DID! Two pair! I gave one to my dad for Christmas and he could probably write a book on "Proper Reception of Knitwear Gifts" so great was his appreciation. He exclaimed at their beauty, immediately put them on, repeatedly commented on their fit, warmth and comfort, and took his shoes off at random intervals to make strangers look at his socks.

As a general rule, this is absolutely the way to make sure you get more socks. I'm yarn shopping for him right now.

It's also the way my dad does anything- full of gratitude and appreciation. Poor Chase is always caught off guard by how MUCH I need that. Like I want a fucking parade when I wash the dishes and take the kids to the park and fold laundry. But it's because my dad is SO APPRECIATIVE of everything anyone does for him. It's an amazing feeling to be loved by someone like that.

Chase's resolution loosely coincides with the new year, but he actually started exercising and calorie counting in December (seriously?! December?), and he's lost a lot of weight at this point. I guess I should try to sort of slow down the gain? So he doesn't leave me for some tattooed and be-Ugged undergrad? But these are my winter stores! Little House on the Prairie taught me that if I'm stuck in a blizzard and I can't find a haystack to burrow into, then I need to just keep walking as long as I can, and hope that my body can fuel itself with built up nutrients. How can I do that if I'm all thin and shit? Nope. This is self preservation.

Chase commented last week that he thought the BMI index needed to ask - "Do you get winded while making a quilt?"

His guess was that it would take my score up a point. What can I say? Haters gonna hate.

This years crafting resolutions - Finish my flannel tied quilt. Finish my white work whole cloth quilt. Make a map quilt. Make myself some mittens (like Laura Ingalls, however unlike Laura, when the Christmas train gets snowbound, I will not give my mittens to stupid blind Mary). I... um.. also resolve to go check some new books out of the library, so I'll stop rereading Little House. I might be getting too involved.

ALSO - I am going to try Fair Isle knitting this year. I will no longer let fear govern my knitting! FAIR ISLE OR BUST.

Let's see. What else? Probably work out a better system for monitoring baby play than "Loud or Not Loud," those being my current determining factors in acceptability.

Double up meals and freeze them, at least twice a week. This has been so helpful in the past and I don't know why I don't do it more often anyway.

Lobby to get my egalitarian church small group to read Mark Driscoll's new book. Come on guys. You know it would be a blast. For real though, try reading Pynchon again. Maybe if I stick with it, I'll get it eventually?

And that's all I've got at the moment. Other than the general- take better more loving and present care of the people (and animals) in my life. And let people take care of me.

state of the garden

2011-12-14T06:56:00.000-08:00

It was so so hot this summer, and so dry, that we basically gave up on the garden after about mid-June. When July 4th rolled around, (pumpkin planting day, if you want them by Halloween) I thought about how many gallons of water I'd have to pour on a tiny pumpkin plant to keep it alive through August, and said, maybe next year.

But then once it was semi-bearable outside again, we planted them anyway. And now we have pumpkins in December, even if I do have to run outside with an armful of sheets to tuck them in a couple nights a week.

I don't tuck the kale in, and it doesn't really seem to mind. Neither does the chard. These guys are just the eternal givers of the garden. Total workhorses. I haven't watered them in a month, I go out and break half of the plant off and then next time I go outside it's ready to be harvested again.

And oh how much the children will rejoice when there's finally no more left. But not today! sauteed chard for everyone! MWAHAHA!

These ladies will also rejoice if I call the garden done and let them clean up the leftovers. Early dark means we get fewer eggs, and the cold seems to make them a bit broodier than usual. The last hard freeze finished off the birdhouse gourds (which is good, because they were covering up the wiring on the outside of the house... they got... kind of aggressive there at the end). But there's still lots of bug-eaten salad greens and flattened squash leaves and little green bean shoots from various spilled seed packets.

My garden helpers, always there to insure that I'll never know what will come up where. They take their banished-outside microphones to the top of the playscape and give the neighborhood Christmas concerts, whether the neighbors want them or not. Coats over pajamas seems to be how we roll around here, on weekend days.

Anyway, that's the state of the garden, mid December. There are lots of things I'd like to do differently next time- I definitely learned stuff this year. I still don't quite feel like I get out of it what I put into it. I know that I'll keep learning, and every year I work in this garden, my soil will get better and easier to work with. I just want to be better at this! All at once! (One of the many things montage-to-upbeat-music-in-80's-movies has to answer for - I feel like I should just be able to put on some ABBA and BE GREAT AT THIS).

We're renters here, and so I don't want to make these big infrastructure investments with cedar raised beds and stuff... and I don't have the money to do that anyway. I just... work with what we've got. And that means we've got a lot of kale.

Good thing I like kale.

holding the adventmass line

2011-12-12T06:00:00.000-08:00

I am trying to walk a line this season --

I am trying to be present (which feels hilarious to write, here on my MOM BLOG, while my family is running around asking for dinner and I am ignoring them). I am trying to be present and engaged and not always asking the girls to please for the love of God take those damn "Merry-okie" microphone toys OUTSIDE.

I want ridiculous mom blog things - all our gifts to each other to be handmade, with love. I want to help each child make a gift for the others- the gift that they dream up for their sibling. I want to make pajamas! For Christmas Eve! For everyone! I want to KNIT ALL THE THINGS.

I want to give two dozen cookies and a quart of bourbon to everyone who has dealt with my kids in any capacity all year. I want the dogs to have little sweaters on. And to stop digging through the recycling bin in the garage.

I want to have the perfect little containers for homemade vanilla extract, and to have... you know... made it. And also to make all the cookies that have over the years become Christmas Necessities, including the refrigerator cookies you roll in a tube that only my mom likes.

BUT. I also want to be sane in January, and to have spoken to my children in something other than a yell during the most wonderful time of the year.

So... There's a line. The line means watching the Grinch and eating popcorn for dinner. It means picking my battles and trying hard to believe that when Jane says she doesn't need a coat because she's not cold, she might actually not be cold. It means going to HEB for a tree, not driving out to Elgin and slogging through a field full of anthills, so I can have a file in iphoto that matches last years'... Instead of some of those handcrafted gifts over on pinterest... There might be an EZbake oven and some My Little Ponies under the tree. And it's not going to bother me. Because I'm holding the line. I'm not going to go nuts making my kids hold still so I can get good shots for grandma's silhouette collection (07). I'm not going to throw a roll of butcher paper across a room when I drop stitches on a hat the night before Christmas (09). It means I am never setting foot in a post office in December with my kids again, even if it means no one who doesn't live in Austin gets their gifts on time (11).

Hold The Line.

I am thankful

2011-11-25T11:53:00.000-08:00

for a walk in the woods with my family.

pow-wows and quilts

2011-11-21T06:31:00.000-08:00

I've always felt a little ambivalent about the Pow Wow at Jane's school. It's really fun and it's the culmination of a long unit of study about Native Americans leading up to Thanksgiving. And the teacher in charge is really honestly wonderful...

On the other hand, it also takes place with this in our backyard, and that's something the kids could take part in without quite as much of a "dress up and make noises like these funny characters whose land and lives we stole! good times!" vibe. I'm just a jerk though. Obviously the kids are having a blast...

The boys in Jane (Singing Fox)'s class made shields...

And the girls made papooses and cradle boards. Jane's main concern along these lines was that it must have been TERRIBLE to be a Native American baby because your diaper was made out of MOSS and that would be SO ITCHY.

Her class was studying the plains tribes mainly. Next year I may have to talk about the Matriarchy of the Iroquois...

Ben didn't exactly have a blast, but he endured the whole thing pretty well, considering we woke him up from a nap to get there on time. We decided not to stuff his diaper with moss, for authenticity.

He was a trooper, but he was also happy to be done pow-wowing.

Moving on! I listed some new quilts in the shop.

Sort of wonky log cabin squares.

And a very simple, binding-less blue coin quilt. I think these are probably the last two quilts I'll get finished up before Christmas, since pretty soon it will be all Christmas crafting all the time. I really love this time of year and it seems like it goes by so fast. I can't believe Thanksgiving is THIS WEEK!

amazing seiferts

2011-11-18T15:42:00.000-08:00

Look at this video by the very talented Jeremy Seifert.

Made me cry and -almost- made me pack up the kids and head back to our Los Angeles family. Man I miss those guys.

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

2011-11-13T11:22:00.000-08:00

That's right ya'll! It's time for Christmas card photos! When I round up my protesting children, force them to put on hot winter outfits when it's 80 degrees outside and bribe them with ice cream for standing in one place and looking in the same direction... Does it feel like standards have fallen somewhat?

And yet we still can't do it. This might actually be one of the best shots. Certainly the most representative of the outing as a whole. I especially like that both Ben's shoes have fallen off due to his angry flailing, and his screaming has bothered Wren to such an extent that she's apparently sucking her thumb for the first time in her life. Jane is unperturbed but then she's probably planning to stab me again with her soccer trophy, which she insisted be in all the pictures with us. You can just barely see his head down at the bottom of the photo.

I hope you're all having better luck. And I think next year I'll just send everyone a picture of Ramona and the chickens. They're really my favorites anyway.

Friendship is Magic

2011-11-01T05:51:00.000-07:00

For the non-Bronies out there, that is the name of the new My Little Pony series that my daughters routinely lose their shit over. Chase is also kind of a huge fan, and will happily chat pony character arcs and whether Applejack should really have all the responsibility of the orchard on her Little Pony shoulders.

Costumes were obvious to Bronies, everyone else was gently corrected by Jane, "NO I AM NOT A FAIRY I AM A PEGASUS! I AM A WEATHER PONY!!!"

And those wings are why parts of my house still look dyed chickens exploded.

Benno was Spike (Twilight Sparkle's dragon friend). He was happy and easygoing all night, although he did appreciate breaks from wearing the top part of the dragon costume. He also pulled up and stood unsupported for a looong time (and the first time) at the party we went to. Hurray Ben!

And here are our pumpkins. Wren designed a Very Scary Vampire pumpkin and somehow in the process managed to freak herself out enough that she ended up not wanting to look at it. And Jane requested (demanded) Hello Kitty and then I made it and then she dropped it on the ground. In that picture Kitty's face is held together with tape.

I feel like somewhere in that last paragraph this became a parable about motherhood? Meh. Anyway, I love Halloween because it's the non-family holiday. It's about your neighbors, that you never talk to, that have creepy couches on their porches but their light's on... do you send your kids to the door? Do you try that house down the street with all the decorations? Because those people were kind of dicks about your dog when you first moved in... you get to find out what kind of velvet painting your neighbor has in her living room, and who gives natural fruit snacks and who gives pennies (WTF?) and who gives full size candy bars (THE BEST PEOPLE THAT'S WHO).

Anyway if you're looking for me today I'll be at Target... buying some clearance candy. Because other than the initial "I made your whole damn costume" tax, my kids are not sharing.

Fallish

2011-10-31T08:11:00.000-07:00

We are still here, busy and well, only lacking the charger for our camera... So unfortunately I just have the evidence of phone pictures, both with and without super exciting Instagram filters, to document my very favorite season.

This is a tiny sweater, blocking out on my bed. Luckily that's Chase's side of the bed, because I didn't use enough towels and things were sort of damp and sheepy over there that night.

I knit my first pair of socks, my first sweater, my first real lacework, and my first pair of mittens in the last month. The socks are on Chase's feet (turns out I don't like socks) the lacework went to a wonderful friend for babysitting, and the mittens are in the Christmas gift pile.

I've also made baby hats and baby mitts, but those are fast and I've made them before. Fall tv and fall weather combine to make the perfect knitting storm. And of course there's always the best show on earth to knit to- old 30 Rock.

Also of course working in the evenings means the library is nice and quiet and other than finding the occasional book on reserve, and chatting with the library ghost, I can just knit the night away.

On the first day with a high below 80 degrees I made gingerbread, pumpkin bread and even more pots of coffee than usual. I made a pumpkin cake for Ben's birthday, that was supposed to look like this:

And actually looked like this instead...

Upside-down in the mixing bowl it sort of slopped into. So then I made him a gingerbread cake instead.

And this is sadly the best picture from his little birthday dinner. Stupid phone. But it was a lovely night.

The other big news in our life right now is our new housemate --

Fierce the Bunny. His owner, my sister Anne, is also living with us. Which means Ramona can usually be found right here

curled up on Anne's pillows. At least until Ben finds her, and then she reverts to hiding in her favorite, baby proof closet.

To summarize, we're great, but too busy to find the damn camera charger.

change in the air

2011-09-13T06:06:00.000-07:00

Fall gardening (even though it's 103 again today).

Tiny baby winter plants, that hopefully will survive the ministrations of my 3 excitable garden helpers.

This one doesn't want to wait for squash- he eats dirt instead.

This one is rarely without her birthday cowgirl boots these days. She is heartbroken that they're not appropriate for school days, but that means they get worn everywhere else.

Last week when the temperature dipped briefly into the low 90s I got out the yarn basket. I've picked up my New Years Resolution socks again, so hopefully I'll make some progress on those. And I've made a few fast hats, 3 for bartering purposes with my sister's favorite carpenter (last year I got a chicken coop... who knows what could happen? I want to stay on that guys good side).

The strider bike Jane got for her birthday has been getting a lot of use, but the other favorite presents (besides her girl pet lion of course) have been the walkie-talkies. There's been a learning curve, and maybe an overly heavy reliance on the "call" button (dear god make it stop. or short out or something). But overall the girls have really loved playing with them together. So now I can reclaim the baby monitor from them.

And finally, I moved my craft stuff out of the living room into a closet... less light for pictures, but more ability to work for brief uninterrupted periods of time. This is a patchwork blanket in progress, and I am making a little stack of these for all those babies due this winter. Any mother who has suffered through the summer we've had deserves some handmade baby blankets in the fall!

So fall is on the horizon, I don't care what the thermometer says. Gingerbread, pumpkin pie, sweaters, knitting, HOT coffee, and RAIN. Things are looking up! Nothing but good times ahead. Right guys?

mercury in retrograde...

2011-09-09T13:39:00.000-07:00

I feel patently ridiculous complaining about anything when my city is completely surrounded by raging fires and my neighbors have lost homes and cars and pets. Our house is standing. Absurdly, grossly messy, buried under piles of laundry, but standing. The kids are healthy, other than the standard "back to school" runny noses and coughs. We did not at any point this week have to scramble to throw our belongings (get the quilts!!) into the minivan and flee in panic, only to turn around and go back for the fishbowl.

But still. Can you please indulge me for a minute? In the banal and lame complaints department? If you really cannot stomach hearing someone talk about how they feel like they're living "under a black cloud" when you are actually living under a cloud made of the ashes of your home... maybe just pretend like I never wrote the following --

First dental work in 15 years (me and Chase), re-fixing dental work (just me- FUN), disappearing stomach lining (me again!), sleeplessness (everyone except Jane), late night missed buses (yep, me), and of course imminent suffocation by giant pile of laundry (ALL OF US SEND HELP OH MY GOD)

Also. When I make jam, 1 out of 8 jars seals, when I bake, it's mushy or burned, when I sew, my thread breaks, then my needle breaks, then my thread breaks again. When I knit I miscount. I rip out, I knit again. I end up turning it in the wrong direction and knitting diagonally?! WTF. Usually when things are feeling difficult I calm myself down by making something, but it feels like I need to just go to a cabin in the woods (not the piney woods.. ) and try not to touch anything.

We are both being really short with the kids. It might partly be the fact that Ben frequently wants to sleep just a little bit less than he wants to scream as loud as he can into your face, and that can be kind of wearing. NONETHELESS. My kiddos do not deserve this- they are living their own lives, newly jam packed with exhausting school days and new challenges and although they can be kind of IRRITATING (ha. kind of). as they work through these issues, they still need their parents to be on the ball, dealing with it kindly and presently, not just staring at the wall and wishing it would be time to open the bottle of wine already.

BASICALLY nothing's wrong. Everything's fine. Wah wah. We have a house and jobs and health. I'm shutting up already.

P.S. The "OMG I know how blessed we are and I am SO GRATEFUL" postscript- more or less effective than the more traditional version of putting dirt on your kids' faces to ward off the evil eye? Because I do that too.

Tourists in London

2011-08-26T08:20:00.000-07:00

The London Eye

Westminster Cloisters

London Fields, in the rain

Waterloo Bridge, between Somerset House and the National Theater

Big Ben. Little Ben was asleep when we took it, or we'd have made him pose.

Millennium Bridge (rebuilt with less falling down!)

Baby in Soho

St. Paul's after Matins (Ben slept through that too).

And sadly, Starbucks. In our defense, we needed coffee badly and it was across the street from our bus stop.

I blinked

2011-08-22T08:21:00.000-07:00

First day of school for my First Grader.

around edinburgh

2011-08-16T14:28:00.000-07:00

Chase and Ben at the window in Ladystairs. We loved our little apartment.

Tim might have loved it slightly less, since he was on a couch in the living room/kitchen, and got disturbed at 6 AM by my daily blind stumble for the coffee pot. But I definitely recommend homeaway if you're looking for a place to stay on a trip.

Yeah, it's what you think. And yes I totally ate them and they were delicious. Not so much the blood pudding though.

This is also taken from the window of Ladystairs, only at about 10 minutes to midnight. That's a bagpipe parade going past in a blur, and the crowd is getting ready to disperse. The fireworks would have gone off about 10 minutes prior to this. And... that happened every night. Sort of like Disney World.

Here's Ben eating some breakfast at a little restaurant next to the grassmarket. They also served the closest thing to real coffee we had the whole time we were in the UK. Jamie complains about doing without black beans and salsa but seriously, I would need weekly care packages of coffee beans if I were there for much longer.

And here's a poorly lit iphone picture of the castle. I took it while walking through Princes Street Gardens, and although it's a terrible picture, it still gives you an idea of how crazy somebody would have to be to try to invade. I guess you have to hand it to the English... I would have taken one look at that and turned around and gone back to my cute little thatched cottage in the Cotswolds. I mean, obviously they should have... Go Scotland! Kilts forever!

calton hill

2011-08-15T07:08:00.000-07:00

holyrood and greyfriars

2011-08-13T08:09:00.000-07:00

In Edinburgh we were staying on the royal mile, very close to the castle, but after walking up into the courtyard, through the gauntlet of be-tartaned ye olde gifte shoppes, we decided that although the castle was impressive, we'd rather see Holyroodhouse Palace and the Abbey.

The Abbey is beautiful, and it was amazing just to be walking around in temperate weather, among living, non-scorched gardens. Our friend and host Jamie would apologize when it drizzled and misted but we were too busy running outside with our faces up and our mouths open.

The story of the Abbey is that David I followed a stag in the forest, and was thrown from his horse. He was saved from being gored by the appearance of a crucifix in the stag's antlers. He grasped the cross, and in gratitude, founded an abbey on the site.

So... there are lots of deer statues.

The royal tombs in the Abbey are sort of bundled away into a back corner closet with a padlock on the outside. Understandable, since apparently they tend to get ransacked every time a mob moves through town (apparently, a lot).

Imagine living in a place where moss grows on stuff.

This is one of the tombs at Greyfriars Abbey. They form a square around the central yard, and each one backs up and shares a wall with the apartment building behind it. I guess when you've been living on top of each other for so long, there's less of a stigma if your neighbors happen to be very very quiet. In Oxford we stopped in a little coffee shop across from the camera where the outdoor tables were sitting on flat gravestones in the yard of St. Mary's. The names and dates were mostly rubbed away, and I suppose if you were looking for someone in particular you could ask your fellow coffee drinkers to scoot over or something.

The hill behind the abbey is Arthur's Seat, which we did not climb. We looked up admiringly at those who did, and decided to climb the much smaller Calton Hill. But first I made someone else carry the baby.

Mercy

2011-07-26T14:08:00.000-07:00

I just... I don't even know what to say about this.

50 is the new 20

2011-07-22T07:55:00.000-07:00

I don't know where this summer is going, but it's simultaneously flying and creeping by.

It's 2:30 in the afternoon with a sweaty napless baby on my lap and two bored big sisters asking for popsicles and the clock hasn't moved in an hour and a half and then I look up and it's three weeks later...

Anyway, I'm behind on sharing some pictures from my birthday canoe trip with Chase and the girls.

We had a blast. Being 30 so far is a lot like being 29 - it's over 100 degrees every day and my bangs won't do what I want them to.

Really though, I think 30 might be a bigger milestone for people who didn't see that plus sign on the little stick quite so early in their 20s. It definitely doesn't mean "finally grown up" to me... On the other hand, I'm looking forward to some wild and crazy 50s, when all the rest of you suckers are still ferrying your kids between soccer and ballet.

bath time

2011-07-21T07:34:00.000-07:00

He's at that wonderful stage where he's still too little for a tub bath, but getting too big for a sink bath.

Actually it's not an issue of size so much as reach. And busyness.

In order to contemplate a bath now I have to clear off the counters in a 3 ft radius around the sink- because he will be climbing and grabbing and slipping and sliding and pulling and splashing and laughing.

In other words, a good time is had by all.

At least until he figures out how to turn the water on...

Guadalupe River State Park

2011-07-20T07:03:00.000-07:00

It's Time

2011-06-22T14:58:00.000-07:00

Well friends, the time has come for me, like it does for so many women of my generation and vague humanities related skill set.

The time has come in which I must decide to either become a wedding photographer (too many working weekends), train to be a doula (um.. do you have a placenta encapsulater I can borrow?) or....

Open an Etsy shop.

That's right ya'll. I did it.

Get ready to watch my massive customer base bring paypal to its knees.

But seriously though... maybe you could take a look?

grandad owl and shawn

2011-06-14T10:25:00.000-07:00

My dad flying rubberband planes with Jane.

Ben chomps on his first cherry tomato and sprays everyone in a 2 ft. radius. It turns out he really loves tomatoes. Which is handy, because there were a whole lot of them.

Wren waits for Grandad Owl to wind the plane.

Jane and one of her many beloved babies.

My dad shells a record basket of butter beans from the garden.

We all sat around the table and shelled and shelled, and Chase said later he was so disappointed when he realized we were having gumbo for dinner and no fresh butter beans.

That's why I let it slide when I realized he had an extra helping of crab in his gumbo. Sometimes everybody needs an extra claw.

village creek

2011-06-13T15:10:00.000-07:00

The creek was as low as I've seen it. And more impressively, as low as my dad has ever seen it. We left the canoe at home and walked across, carrying the babies. It was a lovely day, but I hope the creek (and the rest of Texas) gets some water soon.

splash park

2011-06-04T07:06:00.000-07:00

I've been trying to figure out how we're going to survive this summer. Traditionally, the way to survive summer in Texas involves moving as quickly from air conditioning to submerged-in-water as possible. But that's not really doable right now.

Wren is semi-drownable, Jane is totally drownable and Ben of course is just slightly too weighted down by his diaper ballast to be buoyant. That's too many to keep from drowning at a time. In a swimming pool I look sort of like the last scrap of floating cabinetry on the Titanic- swarming third class passengers slugging it out to get a better grip.

My mom thinks these splash pads in city parks, taking the place of pools, are another scourge of our godless (poolless) generation. Signs of the decline of civilization. When she was little and pools closed, it was because of polio, or segregation fights...not because kids were big pussies who didn't know how to swim.

I bet, though, that for a week this summer when SHE has to keep these limpets from drowning, she's going to change her mind about that.

I think the splash pads are AWESOME. Because I get to sit on a blanket with Ben and, other than occasionally shepherding someone to the bathroom and helping them wash their hands, I remain remarkably dry. AND! No one grabs me by the throat in terrified desperation of going under and strangles me.

If only there was a frozen margarita stand... And maybe some chips and salsa or something? No? Oh well.

I think we're ready for summer.

A.L.V.

2011-06-03T05:08:00.000-07:00

Today is my sister's birthday. She is an amazing lady.

Certified wilderness medicine rescuer. (Almost) certified NOLs rafting guide. Nomad. Vagabond. Wearer of holey pants over high end silk long underwear.

She got a broke ass ancient Bronco, pulling a homemade trailer, from Wyoming to Texas, with the drive shaft held on by baling wire. She says things like "The brakes went out coming over the pass, but I still had the parking brake so I kept going..."

She is a rafting guide in the summer and an ice climber in the winter. A free climber, a trad climber... other kinds I'm sure I don't want to know about. She buried her beloved dog, by herself, on the Wyoming tundra. Breaking ice to dig, and "facing West because Lola always loved the sunset."

She rappelled down a mountain with a baby goat zipped into her North Face jacket. She set her clothes on fire to scare off a mountain lion while illegally camping in a national park. She raced her sailboat, flipped it, and came out of the water laughing about it. When we were little, she cut my hair in my sleep because I put my snake in her bed.

One time she was watching the kids for a couple hours, and when we got home she had sanded and stained our kitchen table.

If she has enough money to buy human food or dog food, guess who's going to be hungry?

If something is easy, you can be absolutely 100% sure Anne will find a hard way to do it. But she'll still do it.

She has a toolbox with hacksaws and plumb bobs and awls, as well as, of course, baling wire.

If she's standing at an intersection in Austin, there's a 50% chance someone's going to pull over and give her some change.

She also makes really great biscotti, and herb bread. And she brought me a package of wild hog meat yesterday, and then cooked it while we were out.

She never met a distressed animal that didn't follow her home. Including rabid tomcats and fox kits. When we were little she taught our parakeet to tightrope walk.

She's the kind of person who, when they come to visit you, leaves all their stuff on the couch and disappears, and then you get a text at night that says "camping on the Comal."

Of course, she's also the kind of person you can call when you need help, and she'll hitchhike to your house, or scam a bus pass, or just walk, but she'll get there. And you can pay her for babysitting in chocolate milkshakes.

And you know, someone saw her kayaking on the Comal the other day and offered her a job, as a kayaking guide.

By the way, if anyone likes the look of this LOVELY moneypit vintage Bronco, dead parked in front of my house... make my sister an offer.

But be generous. It's her birthday!

Our Apple

2011-06-02T06:26:00.000-07:00

It's dance recital season, ya'll. If you know a little person who likes to dance, you have very likely gone to one of these or are planning on going.

I can tell you, even with a poopy baby on my lap, it was a damn good time.

Wren was an apple, a very important narrative element from the Wizard of Oz (yeah I didn't remember them either). She and her troop of fellow apples tapped Dorothy along the yellow brick road and it was totally awesome.

We were so proud of her for practicing (sort of) hard and for being so brave in front of a seriously huge audience.

Since she was backstage she only got to see the one dance right before the apples, so we're going to try to borrow a DVD so she can watch the whole thing. Tapestry did an amazing job of fitting in all the different classes and skill levels and keeping the whole thing actually really entertaining for the audience. I was completely floored by the skill level of the senior dancers- not a new feeling for me. I am generally in a low-level state of awe at the relative coordinatedness of my fellow humans, compared to my total lack.

All that to say, it was awesome and we're proud of Wren. And Jane came away impressed by the green witch and the flying (tapping) monkeys, of course.

Memorial Day

2011-05-31T19:30:00.000-07:00

We went to the lake.

And then we went to Casey's New Orleans Snowballs. Wren got strawberry, I got black cherry, Jane got rainbow, Chase got creamsicle, and Ben got bites of everybody's.

But we ate them too fast to take pictures.

triangle quilt

2011-05-27T05:40:00.000-07:00

I finally finished it. It's going in the mail today. Or maybe tomorrow, depending on how terrible the children are for the rest of the day.

I tried to institute "rest time" today. Where they would play quietly in their beds, looking at books, doing puzzles, etc. After they screamed so loud they woke up the baby, and played so rough it sounded like the house was falling down, I declared it a failure and am going to send them outside for the afternoon.

Although the girls get tired of the yard, their brother loves being outside. Specifically the "eating dirt" part of being outside. Which is where quilts come in handy. At least until he scoots his way off the edge.

I am just so deeply bummed not to be there in person, and hold the little baby this quilt was made for. I can't even really talk about it. I'll get there eventually, I'm sure. Maybe I will even leave my terribly behaved children at home when I visit!

And in the meantime I'm sending this. I love you, baby. Our whole family loves you. Be warm! And like triangles!

the graduate

2011-05-26T12:15:00.000-07:00

I know it's a little bit silly to make such a big deal out of a kindergarten graduation. I get it. How would she -not- have graduated?

And yet this is also a celebration of her time at this really wonderful school. She's been a student at St. Matts for more than half her life! And a way to say goodbye to these teachers who have loved her so well and taught her so much.

So we did the whole deal. "Diploma," bible, they gave the kids little silver crosses. There was a sheet cake, balloons, lots of running and screaming and inevitably crashing after the sugar rush wore off. There was a slideshow, and they handed out boxes of kleenex on the way into the sanctuary.

It was a nice day. And here we are. In the first week at home, with summer stretching out like a limitless expanse before us...

May God have mercy on us all.

mother's day beaumont trip

2011-05-10T06:28:00.000-07:00

It was a tractor riding,

squash chewing...

slip-n-sliding,

cucumber-picking,

garden admiring,

gourd-painting good time.

We had a great Mother's Day weekend, and we were back in town for Jane's soccer game on Sunday afternoon. Where she scored the winning goal! And got the MVP medal for the game! Go Jane!

I hope you guys all had equally victorious weekends, hopefully with lots of gourd-painting too.

McKinney Falls

2011-05-03T08:01:00.000-07:00

Water levels were a bit low, and Onion Creek might have been giving off a slightly more "oniony" flavor than usual. Onion rolled in putrid fish maybe? But that wasn't going to stop us!

Something that was going to stop us though, or at least stop the girls, was any bug at all, even if it was just a rumor of a bug. We have got a serious phobia brewing here.

Which is weird because they are totally cool swimming deep into the water and getting their toes nibbled on by millions of minnows they can't see. Honestly? I'd be more worried about that, than about a grasshopper on the way to the car.

But whatever, that's just me. Sitting on a blanket, pulling handfuls of river rocks out of Ben's mouth every 20 seconds.

It was a nice day, and I really hope this tiny bit of rain we're getting is followed by a lot more, so our next visit has a rush at the waterfalls instead of a trickle, and maybe a little bit less eau de low tide.

sisters

2011-05-02T10:39:00.000-07:00

Having a little chat.

Doing a silly dance on Mt. Bonnell.

The school year is wrapping up with a very packed schedule for the month of May. I am hoping that between all the parent conferences, and end of school parties, and teacher appreciation parties etc. we have time to breathe and enjoy some time outside. Before summer gets really really hot, and hiking to the top of Mt. Bonnell is no longer a great idea for a weekend afternoon.

Benjamin

2011-04-28T16:14:00.001-07:00

Current faves: smashed bananas, milk, applesauce and sweet potatoes. Sisters, dogs, chickens. Chase's beard, my hair, anyone's earrings. The bath, before it gets TERRIBLE with the HAIR WASHING and the SCREAMING. The pirate bunny toy that Audrey made for Jane, and a stuffed horse from an old Ikea barn playset. Also this toy, which has been a favorite of all our babies.

He likes to say "dadadada" for a while and then he says "DADADA" and then he gets himself too excited by this whole talking thing and starts crying.

He also has a series of ear splitting shrieks, coos and other musical noises to remind us that he's in the room, in case we forgot.

He likes to sit on the floor and look at his big sisters. If they smile at him or talk to him he gets so excited he wobbles and wiggles and tips himself over. Then Wren scoots him onto her lap and practices her "babytalk" which is shamefully unbearably irritating to me, but Ben's very favorite thing ever.

He DOES NOT like teething, although he does like chewing on anything and everything that moves anywhere near his mouth. He does not like it when I eat broccoli, or pretty much anything in that family. He doesn't seem to be crazy about peas, and although he enjoys -playing- with those rice husk teething snacks, he seems to smear more on his clothes and high chair than end up actually in his tummy.

He does not like sleeping at night quite as much as I wish he did. And he also does not like watching me blog, particularly. So I'll stop there, with a brief picture of our Benjamin at 6 months old.

Wren and Penny

2011-04-25T12:19:00.000-07:00

Penny is hands down Wren's favorite of the chickens, and not just because she's the bravest, and therefore the easiest to catch.

She really is a sweetheart, although I can't pin down where exactly she is on the pecking order. Louise is the fastest, maybe sharing that title with Sal, and we hardly ever catch either one of them. Lil was the biggest for a while, and is still pretty big. She coos and sings funny little chicken songs, and seems to be pretty mellow and stately. Honey and Ginger are inseparable, which is sad because of course we're going to separate them eventually, when we give one of them away... Ginger is a a bit bigger than Honey though. They are this buttery golden yellow color- so fun to see little patches of sunshine scratching around the yard. And of course they leave fertilizer behind them.

Sometimes they even fertilize the playscape.

But Penny. She is smart. She knows that Wren is her ticket to all the mealworms she can eat. She knows that if she runs up when Wren walks in the yard, she'll be scooped up and carried around and possibly fed delicious treats.

This is one smart bird. And when she's done cuddling, she's done.

chocolate bunnies and baby dedications

2011-04-25T12:00:00.000-07:00

We had a pretty awesome Easter. Baskets were found, demolished, and then filled with our dyed eggs, all within about 20 minutes of waking up.

It probably took longer than that, but the night before was not a stellar one, in terms of SLEEPING, for little Ben. So honestly I'm pretty fuzzy on the details of anything that happened before my second cup of coffee.

We hosted Easter this year, since our church is in the evenings, and everybody else goes in the morning. It makes sense for me to be the ham minder. I might have a badge made. Ham minder extraordinaire. Everything went fine, although next year I will attempt not to set two loaves of bread on fire. Obviously, it was intentional. To represent the cleansing of our sin, as our Lord defeated sin and death and rose again. But you know, next year I won't do that. I'll use a timer.

And then, after I lounged about eating cookies while our guests cleaned the kitchen, it was time to load up the car and head to church, to celebrate Easter and to dedicate baby Ben.

Chase took this picture of me as I'm trying to climb in the car with a bundt cake (for the church party) and my 14th coffee of the day. I also had my purse and a diaper bag and at that moment was forgetting to bring the kids baskets for the egg hunt. We had just attempted to take a "family going to church" photo (total fail, Jane is smearing chocolate on her face in every shot) and so we were running super late for our OWN BABY'S DEDICATION. Surprising no one at church, I'm sure.

And here's baby Ben, being dedicated at Mosiac, along with a whole crew of like minded up and comers. The girls were about to embark on their 3rd sugar crazed egg hunt of the day (this time with more ants!! and pinatas, and confetti eggs!) and then we were all going to go home and drop into bed, completely exhausted, and so so thankful.

on deck

2011-04-19T06:11:00.000-07:00

This is my first attempt at a triangle quilt. It's really my first attempt at any quilt where it really matters that all your edges line up perfectly.

It's sort of modeled on this one from the Purl Bee only with a spectrum instead of blue and orange stripes.

Chase can attest to the stressfulness of this work- I am not fun to be around when I'm attempting to line these up (and failing. and doing it again. and failing).

I finally got the top pieced and need to move onto the binding, and get this in the mail before it's intended recipient arrives on the scene. I learned that I CAN make a triangle quilt (almost) even if it's a wonky one whose triangles don't always line up. And I learned that maybe I should stick to patches until I can dedicate more of my brain to my crafting. Currently about 50% seems to be just trying to keep my awake.

a weekend in projects

2011-04-18T10:10:00.000-07:00

House projects...

This is a closet bunk- the girls have been in the finished product for two nights and seem to like it just fine. I'll put some pictures up as soon as I get a last coat of paint on it.

Garden projects were on the agenda, but really all I did was water and pick a little basket of snap peas. The peas are our first fruit, not counting the salad greens, which I have been enjoying but no one else will touch.

Ben had a teething project. He spent all weekend (and all my patience) working on that one, and now he has two little teeth poking up from his bottom gums. He (and therefore everyone else) has been in a much better mood since they finally broke through.

And we had some resting projects too. Ben can usually be counted on to calm down if you get him outside, so we spent a good bit of time on blankets, either in our backyard or next to Jane's soccer field. Their team was soundly beaten again this week by the Dragons. Coach Chase needs to get his act together. Geez.

And Jane took this picture of some attempted rest, that of course wasn't going too well. I think it was waaaaaaaay too early to count as morning, but Chase and I were outvoted - 3 to 2. So morning was declared, pancakes were made, and pots and pots of coffee were brewed.

Which reminds me. The weekend is over. It's almost 1, time for the first round of school pick-ups, and the second pot of coffee.

Six!

2011-03-31T08:49:00.000-07:00

Wren woke up on her birthday and blew out the candle on a stack of pancakes, then she did it again that night after her chosen birthday menu of pizza and chocolate pie...

Wren's Nana was in town for her birthday, but spent most of the party holding her little brother.

The balloon animals were out in full force and Wren got this lovely unicorn.

Janey loved her little ladybug bracelet enough to actually approach the terrifying clown who made it close enough to get it put on her hand.

There was also face paint, and although Wren declined to be painted, she thought her cousin's was AMAZING.

She and Ava played on the swings, and took a ride on the train, and then Wren shared a snow cones with Jessie.

The babies hung out in the nice shady pavillion.

Chewing on water bottles and drinking milk.

And overall being spoiled so much by various baby-holders that Ben for one has decided he's done with being put down. He'd much rather sleep on laps, thank you very much.

Overall it was a great day and Wren has a LOT of thank you notes to write with all her new art supplies!

Cowboy Cookout

2011-03-30T08:25:00.000-07:00

The Texas unit at Wren's school just finished with a big cowboy rodeo and a chuck wagon cookout. The kids sang every verse to "Deep in the Heart of Texas" and of course "Texas our Texas"

There was roping,

And riding...

Chili and biscuits and dump cake (made by the kids, of course)

And apples on a string for dessert. It took a while...

But she got it!

This week they went on a fieldtrip to the Capitol. Very exciting stuff. Wren said she was so excited to meet our president, Rick Perry.

I guess he's taking his secession stuff pretty seriously these days.

Pele

2011-03-30T08:17:00.000-07:00

For the 30 seconds or so per game that she can be convinced to pay attention, Janey is pretty good at soccer.

The rest of the time she'd rather be blowing dandelions on the field, digging in the dirt, or running in circles around Ben's stroller.

One of the most enjoyable parts of the whole 3 year old soccer team experiment has been watching Chase coach them. Please, if you are feeling down on a Sunday afternoon, join us at the field. I promise you, pharmaceuticals have nothing on Chase, in his "COACH" shirt, trying to herd this team toward the goal they're actually supposed to be heading for.

Happy Birthday Wren

2011-03-29T08:11:00.000-07:00

Our sweet friend Melissa took some lovely pictures at Wren's birthday party in Zilker Park on Saturday afternoon.

I like how these accurately reflect the "Lord of the Flies" feel of Wren's party. The adults mostly hung out by a picnic table, and the kids roamed in shifting packs, through the woods, through the playground, through the sprinklers, etc. They would come back occasionally to show off face paint and balloon animals and devour a cupcake and a juice box before heading back out to the wild.

I took a few pictures too, on my phone though, so not quite as charming. They'll have to wait for another naptime, because I hear Ben waking up and he's surprisingly not a fan of watching me do stuff on the computer.

Birthday Bird

2011-03-29T07:41:00.000-07:00

Wren's Nana gave her bunches and bunches of super grown up art supplies for her birthday. Including (gasp) acrylics. Wren is in love with the bright deep colors, such a different experience than her $1 watercolor packs.

She has been churning out art work like crazy, even more than usual... I think next week I'm going to go pick up a stack of blank bags from Terra Toys. It's just .10 a bag, but at the rate Wren works, she'll be buying her own books there in no time.

Nuggets

2011-03-20T08:51:00.000-07:00

It has become increasingly clear in the last few days that Wren considers "chicken" the food to be a completely different entity than "chicken" the beloved playmate and pet, that follows her around the yard and perches on her finger...

It is not clear what exactly we should do about this. Of course we had that talk, a long time ago, and I'm guessing it was so horrific that she just totally forgot. I don't want to have the talk again, next to the box under the heatlamp, full of soft chick bedding and cheeps.

She -really- liked the chicken parm I made last night...

I am not ready to raise vegetarians. I like tofu as much as the next person who would almost always rather be eating at the Salt Lick than eating whatever it is they're currently eating.

We don't eat that much meat, maybe 3 meals a week, but chicken is by far the -least- adorable animal we consume. If she thinks chicks are personable adorable not-at-all-delicious fluff balls, then we have to be sure she never ever holds a piglet. Or meets the long-lashed eyes of a heifer.

She has been fishing before, and really loved it. And didn't seem that concerned about the fact that we'd be gutting and eating that fish as soon as Grandad Owl got it home. She was proud at the dinner table that she'd helped. And she actually -has- a fish. Juliette the Fish! I guess she's not that attached?

I think that the case of Lil, Sal, Penny, Louise, Ginger and Honey is going to be quite different.

At the Fair

2011-03-19T07:26:00.000-07:00

Weekend

2011-03-07T06:32:00.000-08:00

Having a sick sister who wants to go to sleep at 6:00 pm every night means you get to stay up "late" and play checkers with your dad.

And having a little sister who suddenly takes an afternoon nap again means that you get to ride your bike as fast as you want, and come home with holes in the knees of your pants.

And even with bike riding, and Dr. Seuss reading, and 100 piece puzzle constructing, there's still time to practice your scales.

Jane was so out of it this weekend that Wren got a tiny taste of being an only child. She liked the attention but I'm pretty sure she's ready to have her crazy sister back.

We dragged poor Jane along with us to the Kite Festival and she mostly just laid in my lap and looked at the sky.

Wren had a good time trying to get her star kite in the air, and playing with her friend Naomi.

It was a nice weekend overall, even with Jane feeling so crummy. She's finally starting to feel better, although not quite better enough to go back to school. This means of course that she's in that SUPER ANNOYING stage of having all of her energy and craziness back, with just enough discomfort and crabbiness in there to insure that she's going to make me completely insane.

By the time she's over it and back at school, Ben and I will have it, and I will have missed lots and lots of work. At least I'll have something to do when I get back!

Sick Day

2011-03-04T18:23:00.000-08:00

Lots of stuff has been going around the girls' school lately, and we were due to come down with some of it...

When Janey gets sick, everyone knows it. She plays hard and she falls hard- she is sicker than anyone has ever been sick. Her voice sounds like she's been smoking a pack a day for 20 years, she has a hacking seal-bark cough, and her cheeks are bright pink.

She says, pitifully, "Mama could you please put Ben in his chair because I NEEEEEEED you!" and of course she does, and I do, and she's my little Jane monkey baby for the day, clinging to my hip. At least her proximity lets me keep tabs on her fever inching up between dosings of advil.

She says, "Tomorrow I am going to feel MUCH MUCH better, right Mama?"

And I say that she will, because she probably will. And I say a prayer or a billion for mothers who can't go to the 24 HEB pharmacy for more advil, and for mothers whose babies won't feel better tomorrow. Sorry to be such a Debbie Downer, but sometimes it only takes a tiny glimpse of another road to snap you back to gratefulness.

I am so so grateful.

quilt for auction

2011-03-04T08:19:00.000-08:00

We are so lucky to be able to send the girls to a -really- good school. A school so good that we can't afford it.

We are pretty sure we're the reason they started offering financial aid. And we might just be the sole beneficiaries of the fall fundraiser golf tournament.

It's an important role to have- reminding rich people that other people are like them in many ways, except for not having lots of money. But it also means that we are late with our tuition more often than anyone else, and cause more headaches for the office staff than other families probably do.

Since we can't contribute to the school financially, when the spring fundraising auction came around, I offered to make a quilt.

And this is it.

A coin quilt, made from scraps from the stash, and backed in vintage sheeting. A time crunch meant I was justified in buying binding instead of making my own (hurrah! I HATE making binding) and so that process went faster than usual. I'm happy with the way it turned out and I hope it raises some "thanks for being cool with our poverty" money for our school.

weekending

2011-02-27T12:14:00.000-08:00

From where I sit now I hear a constant cheep cheeping, coming from our housemate's bathroom. Poor Molly had kind of a surprise when she came home yesterday and saw her bathroom had been invaded. She's currently out housesitting for some friends... coincidence?

This one's Sal. The littlest and cheepiest. Named by Jane.

Lil is the darker, fluffier one, named by Wren. Wren is convinced that Lil is the smartest chicken in the world.

We're going to get some more next week, but when I got the Callahans with the girls the guy in front of me bought ALL the rest of the chicks. Seriously! I asked if we could have just ONE of the ones he was having them box up and he said "Nope! That would make it unlucky 13 for me!"

Okay dude. Keep your chicks. We'll try Buck Moore this week.

In spite of rainy drizzly weather we've been outside a lot this weekend. Wren has finally (FINALLY!) mastered the art of pumping on the swing. Praise the Lord.

And Jane, in her Snow White dress, eating an apple. I find apple cores all over the house- under couches, behind dressers, last week I found one in the car. Yuck.

Benjamin is growing so so fast, already teething and outgrowing his bouncer. He kicks around and grabs for toys and is generally ridiculously adorable. His personality is so far staying pretty mellow, but he could just be biding his time, with two older sisters around filling the air with chatter.

He's a delight during the day, but if I could change anything it would be to convince his little body to sleep a bit longer at night. He would like to eat more often than I'd like to feed him in the early morning hours... He calls the shots currently, but eventually I'm going to want to use the part of my brain that currently goes entirely to keeping my sleep-deprived body from falling down the stairs every morning.

bittersweet

2011-02-27T10:17:00.001-08:00

We lost my grandmother last week. My mother's mom- Alice. Also known as Granny Alley, Awice, Aleey-oop, or sometimes by her beloved husband as "The Old Gray Mare" which usually didn't go too well for him.

When people think of the perfect grandmother she is what they think of- curled gray hair that got "fixed" every week on Friday morning, editor of her church newsletter, founding member of her supper club. She was capable of a "Bless your heart" that was clearly a "Screw You" and in truly extreme circumstances she was capable of both. She always had a twisted off roll of thin mints in her freezer and Oreos in a jar on her counter. With my grandfather she bought a house to retire in, as close to her spread out brood as she could, and put in a pool, a treehouse, a swingset, a sandbox, and a trampoline. I don't think they could have been more clear about wanting to be involved grandparents.

She sewed prom dresses and Christmas pageant costumes. She made huge family meals, everything but the BBQ which was of course my grandfather's job. She quilted and knitted and did lovely embroidery, at least until her hands got arthritic and her eyes lost patience for tiny work.

She bought Hummel figurines to pass to the grandkids and she watched the neighbors houses when they went out of town. She had a "shrimp man" who sold her shrimp, an "egg lady" who brought her eggs, a "berry lady" who brought her blueberries and blackberries, and of course a favorite peach place in Fredericksburg. She and Ed knew the best place to get sausage in any small town in Texas.

She played "Who loves you?" and "give me some sugar" and more games of Candyland and Go Fish than anyone should ever have to and yet we completely believed that she loved every second of it. It's just slightly possible that she really did. Just like she loves watching our magic shows and swim meets and homecoming courts and school plays.

She asked about every game and every grade and was so deeply invested in the lives of her kids and grandkids- our biggest advocate always.

She watched every Texas game with a burnt orange shirt on and a cocktail in her hand. She sang "Geaux Tigers" along with the LSU band on TV. She watched White Christmas every year, with a bowl of nuts and a nutcracker on her table.

She loved pecan sandies and Willie Nelson and her garden but she HATED the water bill and so her plants sometimes didn't do as well as they could.

She made my cousin back in to the driveway so the neighbors wouldn't see the Obama sticker on her car.

She made a wonderful roux but not often, because my grandfather was the official gumbo expert in her home. And she kind of lost her heart for cooking when he went 8 years ago. She still made Christmas cookies most years, but I think she mainly loved feeding Ed, and her kids, and it wasn't such a priority after she lost him.

One of the most important things about her what that she was part of a team. She and my grandfather got married in September of 1941, and then they were apart for 4 years. My mom's first 3 Christmases included a propped up picture of my grandfather in uniform sitting under the tree, and when he finally got home safe from Europe, my grandparents were pretty much inseparable. Other than deer season of course. And dove season. And also ducks. Is there a season for ducks? If there is then he was probably gone for it.

After he died my grandmother found a sheet of notepaper where he had written "number of times Alice moved with me" and he'd listed 18 addresses. First in the army, and then in law school, and then working for Mobil Oil. Alley told me that when Ed would ask if she wanted to move again, she would say "Well, where are they going to send the check?"

They were a team- supporting each other and their kids in each new community. And their total delight in each other, even when it was expressed in less than endearing terms, is one of the things I'll remember most. Their marriage taught me a lot about how a good one works. At the stupid age of 20, when I said yes to Chase, I was swayed more than a little bit by the fact that my grandfather liked him. How lucky am I? To have had that model in my life?

And it's one of the reasons why losing Alley is not as sad as it could be. She wanted, more than anything, to be with Ed again. I will miss them both, and I will keep trying to be the kind of parent whose kids come home for a month every summer with the grandkids, because they want the kids to know us. I want to be the kind of grandparent (eventually) who signs up for multi-state, Yellowstone and Glacier Park road trip with the grandkids. And who backtracks when one of them leaves their Carebear in a motel in the middle of Kansas...

They anchored our family and brought us together. We were so so lucky to have had them both, and I hope they have each other again now.

Happy Anna Howard Shaw Day!

2011-02-14T19:40:00.000-08:00

Ben and I were late picking Jane up from school, but we didn't let it keep us down. We all stayed late anyway for Wren's big class party.

Ben was a trooper, even without a diaper change, or a mother who remembered to clean the goop out of his eyes before leaving the house.

Wren's class had a crazy free for all valentine hunt, in addition to cookie decorating, filling mailboxes with their homemade valentines, and making presents for their parents. It was a big party, and I think no one would be surprised by the fact that both girls cried on the way home, and Jane passed out on her bed after I cleaned the chocolate off her face.

I helped Wren clean her face too, because she really hates the feel of face paint. Usually she would never agree to be painted, but I guess she was peer pressured into it by her school friends.

She's wearing one of the little heart clips I made for the girls Valentines. Those are almost a tradition at this point, and this year I used another tutorial from The Purl Bee.

And finally, to wrap up a lovely Valentines Day, the girls were invited to a kid party at a WONDERFUL SELF SACRIFICING friend's house, and Chase proved, once again, after 8 wonderful years, that he knows how to treat a lady. That $1.60 was WELL SPENT and I enjoyed the hell out of my Valentine tacos.

I hope Arandas becomes a tradition for our family too. Hair clips and tacos. I'll take it.

Our Snow Day

2011-02-14T19:14:00.000-08:00

Jane woke up first and we told her she should climb up to Wren's bunk and look out the window.

We could hear her waking Wren up, yelling "SNOW, WREN! SNOW!"

We fed Anne pancakes and saw her off, on at least the first leg of her terrible never ending journey. If her Bronco is Artax in this metaphor, then I think she should just shoot it in the head before it pulls her down with it in the Swamps of Sadness.... I really hate that movie.

Back to fun snow day!

We had snow ball fights, and attempted to build a snow man, and of course saved snow balls in the freezer, to eat in July. Jane decided not to wait, and ate snow continuously whenever we went outside.

And here's my entry into the freshman photography contest. What can I say, the broken doll parts were all buried under the snow.

Overall we had a super fun day.

more phone pictures

2011-02-01T16:20:00.000-08:00

A smiling baby boy, in some kicks from the baby shower that he is already fitting into!

A cat mask, made and then worn for the rest of the day. Pants optional.

A bibbed baby - with this pattern.

A sleepy, but not asleep baby.

And a Jane, who has asked me all day when it is going to start snowing. She has been looking out the windows watching for polar bears. Apparently they come "RIGHT AWAY" when it starts to snow.

Come on Texas weather, how can you disappoint her?

I mean snow. Not polar bears. That would be dangerous and terrifying.

trajectory of a yawn

2011-01-28T19:45:00.000-08:00

One (Big) Step Closer

2011-01-15T13:15:00.001-08:00

Look what appeared over the weekend.

Like magic. Chicken Magic!

My wonderful blog-reading sister and her wonderful cabinet building boyfriend stopped by with a project. Look at the little hearts! She painted it with some extra paint she had, and screened it, and all it needs is a little ramp for our future ladies, and some shingles for the roof.

Seriously could it be more adorable? I think Chase may be fully on board at this point.

My sister has a history of giving people gifts that are alive. She called on Friday and asked if she could bring something by for us. A present, she said. And I said of course because I never turn down presents, but I did mention to Chase that Anne had something to give us. We were sort of speculating on what it could be- a puppy? a goat? a dozen fertilized Americuana eggs?

So a chicken coop is both a marvelous surprise for me and a happy relief for Chase.

Anne would probably like me to mention that she hasn't actually gotten someone a live present in years and years, and actually the last live gift in our family was my mom's mother's day gift two years ago...

This guy. Which I gave to her.

I learned my lesson. As Alvin/Pete has taught us, if you can't be a good example, at least you can be a horrible warning.

Resolutions

2011-01-05T07:33:00.001-08:00

I'm not NEARLY done with the Christmas Recap and 2010 Backlog, but I can't keep ignoring this glorious new year.

It seems like 2010 sucked for a lot of people. Haiti for instance. To a much lesser extent, people at my church. My mom. And of course, miners everywhere.

My family actually had a relatively good year. I started it throwing up and I ended it covered in someone else's throw up, but I'm content because I got this guy out of it.

He's pretty awesome. And handsome. Those eyelashes are kind of insane. Even if my mom does refer to him as "The spitting-up-est baby I've ever known." Nana tells it like it is.

But a new day has dawned! Honestly I've never been that into the new year stuff. I mean, we ate collard greens and black eyed peas when I was a kid, but it wasn't a big deal. It's probably a good idea to embrace any chance to start fresh though, so I made some resolutions. Here goes...In 2011 I'm going to:

1. Learn to knit socks. For real. I've crashed and burned so many times, and now it's this super intimidating thing. But I can do it! This is MY YEAR, SOCKS. For the 2012 apocalypse, I'm going to be wearing a pair of hand knit socks.

Pretty, right?

2. Get chickens. If this sucks, oh well. We can surely find some people who will take them off our hands. But I've wanted to do it for so long, and at this point it's mostly just fear that's stopping me. And also my husband. He is stopping me. But we can work around that! Right, hon?!

Anyway, chickens. It's happening.

3. Be more present and engaged with my children. And since I am the kind of person who slips out of intangible resolutions like they are so many spit up encrusted t-shirts, let's make this specific.

At meal times in 2011, the only thing I bring to the table is my food (and my sparkling personality). No phone, no computer, no book/catalog/newspaper etc. I will converse with my children. No matter how many poop conversations and knock knock "jokes" this involves.

Do any of these guys look capable of telling a decent joke? No. The answer is No.

We are going to hopefully jump into some of my long held dreams in 2011- things like gardening and (maybe!) chickens, and other homesteady (on a budget) type stuff. In the midst of these experiences, I will surrender control whenever possible to my kids. Even if it means plants get overwatered, eggs get dropped, and clothes get permanently stained.

Can you imagine getting the dirt out of those dresses? Praise God for washing machines. Seriously. I do.

Usually, when I'm rushing through preparing dinner, because I didn't plan ahead of time and the kids are grumpy and hungry and under foot, I shoo them out of the kitchen. Not because pots are hot and knives are sharp and all the stuff I tell them, but because they are ANNOYING and I DON'T HAVE TIME FOR THIS, and other awesome thoughts. I would like to change that this year. Plan better, move slower, have time for the most important people in my life to ask my questions and in Jane's case, sneak bites of whatever stomach turning raw ingredients are on the counters. I have seen her shove the following in the her mouth --

- flour (lots of this- it's her favorite)
- butter
- any kind of dough or batter
- brown suger
- white sugar
- cinnamon (that one was fun to watch)
- coffee grounds
- uncooked potato
- entire strawberry with stem attached (swallowed before I could even tell her)
- block of parmesan

and innumerable other improbable substances that I just hadn't even considered she'd want to eat.

"Mmmmm.... coffee grounds....are you going to eat those?"

Anyway, I'm not saying I want that to happen more. I just want it to be less annoying to me when it does happen. I want, basically, to live with joy, peace, patience, kindness, etc. Some goodness, gentleness, and self-control would be helpful as well.

So that's it for now. There's lots of other stuff I'd like to do this year - lose baby weight, have a cleanish house, keep up with the laundry, other generally good ideas. But those are the main ones. The big deals. Socks, chickens, and kids. In that order, of course.

the Christmas knitting

2011-01-04T08:55:00.000-08:00

A slouchy hat, from a Jane Richmond pattern I bought last year.

In Lion Brand chunky, Spice. For my cousin Nell.

Pair of mitts number one, also for the Pacific Northwest dwelling Nell. These are a wool blend, and I've lost the tag with the info on it. I sort of improvised the pattern, basically by reading a bunch of patterns and taking out all the interesting/challenging parts.

Mitts number two, the same non-pattern, the same worsted weight yarn. These were a pair for my sister, on her way to Lander WY this February, and I made them bright red, to help the rescue party find her when they're digging out the collapsed snow bank.

A watchcap for Anne, from the Marsan pattern in a brown and white speckled Fisherman's yarn. It looks like the gray yarn for the mitts in these pictures, but it's actually a very different color. The yarn is 100% super itchy warm wool, for the wilds of Wyoming. Anne has enough hair that no hat will ever come close to touching her skin, so I wasn't worried about the itch factor bothering her.

She also has a smallish (but lovely) head, hence Wren the hat model.

popcorn strings and other misc.

2011-01-04T08:39:00.001-08:00

Wren made popcorn strings. Jane ate them, and my mom's dog Pete lurked under the tree, waiting for them to dangle low enough for him to get a bite.

I made a felt bunny, for the cousins.

Using this book. Their present was the book, some felting needles, and a bag of wool roving in adorable animal colors. I hope their mom doesn't hate me.

teacher and class presents

2011-01-02T07:54:00.000-08:00

For teacher presents this year we made the gingerbread pancake mix from Magnolia, and tiny little jars of pumpkin butter.

Wren had fun making the cards and I hope her teachers had fun eating the pancakes. I love few things more than a gingerbread pancake as big as my head.

And I was out of town for the making of Wren's class presents. I left poor Chase a to-do list that included "Make 20 tiny Christmas soaps, with jingle bells inside." Super wife I am not.

He came through though. And I think the finished product is pretty awesome. If Wren's friend's moms feel the way I do, then anything that makes five year olds want to wash their hands is definitely better than another bag of Christmas candy. That's right, I'm the bummer mom.

Jane's friends, on the other hand, got gingerbread men. Inconsistent parenting FTW!

The Angel

2011-01-02T07:38:00.000-08:00

Jane's three year old class celebrates Christmas with a 'pick-up' pageant.

The kids choose their outfits and characters on the morning of the pageant, thereby ensuring that there will almost always be four or five Marys, a varying number of donkeys, and no innkeeper, because that's just boring.

Janey was an angel, of course, and enjoyed holding up her star. Her participation overall was really nominal at best, but she's definitely adorable, right?

Look at that angelic face. Can you believe she immediately broke from my hold and ran into the parking lot, stopping only to pull her dress up around her armpits so she could bend over, butt facing the church, and hoist her sagging tights back up?

Really? Have you met her?

The Wise Woman

2011-01-02T07:24:00.001-08:00

Wren's Christmas pageant was a couple weeks ago. She was one of the three kings. Frankincense to be precise.

She did a wonderful job, and miraculously did not trip on her super long robe.

The Kindergarteners are the oldest kids at Wren's school and the Christmas pageant is a REALLY BIG DEAL. The teachers sent out emails asking parents not to reserve seats 3 hours ahead of time, so as not to infringe on the earlier Pre-K pageant. Um... don't worry.

They had been practicing for weeks, and sang absolutely beautifully. My favorite song every year is "The Friendly Beasts," and this year I cried, overwhelmed by the sweetness of these kids who worked so hard and did such an incredible job, singing in Christmas with such earnest excitement.

Christmas Retrospective

2011-01-02T07:17:00.000-08:00

I'm going to be catching up on all our Christmas posts, the making presents, the decorating, the cookies, all that stuff. Why not start 2011 like I mean to go on? With an enormous backlog I can never catch up on. Laundry, I'm looking at you.

pictures from my phone

2010-12-07T10:06:00.000-08:00

Clearing out the pictures from my phone somehow drops to the bottom of my to do list more often than you'd think. I still might do it more often than I manage to shower... which says very bad things about both my to do list, and my priorities. Because no matter what else is going on, I make time to acquire and ingest completely insane amounts of coffee every day.

So far Ben has had three or four baths? I've lost count. I know there was at least one at the hospital. Either way he's bathing more than me, which is pathetic. He's screamed his way through all of his baths so far. Hard to believe for a kid who got a 9 on his Apgar for not yelling loud enough. I guess he feels like he's got something to prove.

Here's this one, this delightful middle child, with her mouth full of ice cream and very temporarily not yelling. She is both a trial and a joy, in new ways everyday, and of course also in the same terrible ways as yesterday.

And Ben again, on his first Amy's trip. I may have spooked the locals a bit (hard to do in our neighborhood) with my skills at simultaneously eating and dispensing dairy products. What can I say? The udder murals were inspiring.

Our lovely eldest, giving the sideways eye to who knows what. She is loving Kindergarten so much, and really coming out of her shell. It turns out that under the shell she's a little bit of a sassypants. It's going to be challenging to walk the line of encouraging her to explore her wit and also not raising a total jerkface.

Not that she's capable of that. Here she is modeling a slouchy hat for her cousin Ava. Ava was also the recipient of a birthday card made by Wren. Wren's cards are always a labor of love, with much thought and struggle put into them. She is a loyal and devoted friend, and loves to plan presents and surprises for her people.

And Ben yet again. Snuggled up in bed, already a side sleeper if he has his preference.

And in the laundry basket. Hey how else am I going to carry both the baby and the basket of clean clothes upstairs? A new baby sadly does not mean my big babies no longer need clean clothes. Although somewhere during my third and fourth wash cycle everyday I rethink nudism.

I seem to be determined that Ben will not be the typical third child. Look at all those pictures! And he already has a baby box, which is what I do instead of books, because honestly, I will never ever make a book. But a box? Sure! I can toss stuff in there every now and then. I like to set the bar low so I can feel better about myself.

For instance, today I will return the library books that are two weeks late, I will buy more coffee, I will wash a load of diapers, and I will put my Grandmother's birthday present in the mail.

Huh... doesn't look like showering made it today either. Damn.

parties parties parties!

2010-11-18T05:52:00.000-08:00

Fall is so far very full of celebrations. The last few weekends (and the next few, of course) have been back to back birthday parties for kids in both Wren and Jane's classes. And Wren recently attended her first (half) slumber party. Fun! and also BUSY.

But we love it. And I can always grab my downtime, since it's mandatory for Ben and me to sit down and be still every two hours. And then it's mandatory for Ben to spit up on me.

And it's also helpful to have a reminder about how fast this time goes by... like say seeing that picture of Jane's feet and being reminded of this one, when those shoes fit Wren, and she asked me to put a pink heart on them for her. That was yesterday, right?

Jane's most recent celebration was a gymnastics party, to which she wore this super sporty outfit:

Complete with her very beloved spider ring:

She swung, flipped, bounced...

and finally had an impromptu solo dance party during cake time.

I love my little party animal. Her endless energy will hopefully be inspiration to pull the rest of us through this season. I love love love Thanksgiving and Christmas, but there's no denying it can be tiring and somewhat stressful. Jane lives hard, plays hard and parties hard, and it's difficult to be worried about a to-do list when she ropes you for the fifth time that morning into her dance party.

And someday much sooner than I like I will be trying to talk Ben into those shoes, saying hearts aren't really so girlish, and look they're hardly even pink anymore! Just put them on for a minute so I can take a picture...

At home with Ben

2010-11-17T06:10:00.000-08:00

I love Fall, and it is especially wonderful when I have such a wonderfully snuggly baby to cuddle up with. There are a few downsides- the occasional screaming, the spoiled milk smell that gently wafts from every textile in my home, etc. But obviously, I find that the benefits far outweigh the downsides. Otherwise why would I keep having babies?

Oh right, because my friends bring me dinner for a couple of weeks. That is recompense that should not be underestimated. Also, the forced sobriety every three years ensures that I will yet again be a cheap date this New Years. It's time to party like a half glass of wine with dinner puts me to sleep! WOOOO!

Look at him. He's like "That's right. I slept for five hours last night. Go ahead and get your hopes up. I might do it again. Or, you know, I could take exception to that brussel sprout you ate and gritch and grumble inconsolably every 45 minutes. Who knows?!"

He's lucky he has such a devoted fan club. Jane watches over him, worries when he cries, sings and shushes him, and of course, asks to "pet the baby" anytime it would be most inconvenient to allow her to do so.

Overall she seems to be adjusting to the role of big sister pretty well. We've had our ups and downs, as she processes such a huge change. And Wren, in her typical introverted way, seems to be working through it in her own fashion. Mostly through childhood insomnia. Chase, an occasional insomniac himself, bought her a reading lamp and a stack of chapter books, and we're calling it fixed.

Putting yourself to sleep is a life skill. I am currently the one person in this family who needs no help going to sleep, but someday that will change. I will be sitting up worrying about curfews and boyfriends and girlfriends and sex drugs and rock and roll. These days I am going to be so grateful to have all these wakeful bodies home under this one roof, for this brief moment, even if sometimes it's easier to wish for a tranq gun and better aim.

new fall hats

2010-11-16T06:44:00.000-08:00

The girl's fall hats for this year are done!

Janey picked out her yarn color on a trip to the craft store, and we decided together that Wren would probably like the bright purple color the most. I knew I wanted to make a gnome hat for Jane, since she loved the little felt elf hat and it's not really suited for everyday wear. But the library doesn't have a copy of this book yet, and so I just sort of mashed together a few of the closest sounding ravelry patterns, and her blue gnome hat is what we ended up with.

Wren was adamant that she didn't want a "baby" hat, she wanted a grown up hat. I just cast on to more or less the size of her head and made a very plain purple/pink hat. Then I added a little flower, which was fun and fast, and Wren picked out a button to go in the middle and we were done!

I think that hat will always have a special place in my heart, since I worked on it while I was in prelabor, and for a while in actual labor with Ben. That's a contraction monitor on my giant pregnant belly, just under the yarn. And I'm probably listening to a nurse offer me some beef broth for the billionth time. Fun times.

Either way, the girls have hats for fall. Next up is poor Ben, who would be totally hatless if it weren't for the kind gifts of friends and relatives. The collection of tiny hats I knit for him is destined for the next pregnant lady I know who has a normal sized baby...

very belated Halloween

2010-11-15T11:24:00.000-08:00

So I've been kind of busy, but I want to get back up to date on the blog, so I'm starting with Halloween. This is a picture of Jane practicing her patented "wink" face. We are pretty fond of it.

Sadly we didn't get any good pictures of Jane in her cat costume, but rest assured she was the most adorable (and fierce) black cat in the world.

And Wren in her self-designed and built butterfly costume. She built the wings (with help from Chase) and painted them (with help from Nana) and wore them proudly at school and church and trick or treating.

The girls both picked out "baby" pumpkins, and we talked about how next year, we'll need THREE tiny pumpkins!

We were out trick or treating on a friend's street until pretty late, and then were totally unprepared for the amount of kids in our neighborhood. We had a lot of candy and they completely cleaned us out! We had to hunker down with all the lights off because they just would. not. quit. I wanted to disconnect the doorbell.

And yes, I went to Target the next morning and stocked up on clearance candy. My stash lasted until last week, when the only thing left was Almond Joy (barf) and I gave those all to a weird friend who actually likes them. Overall, we had a great first Halloween as a family of five.

Ben!

2010-10-25T10:22:00.000-07:00

Sorry about the phone photos, I'll get some good pictures up on our flickr as soon as I dig the camera out of the hospital bag.

We went in to the hospital on Thursday afternoon, semi-frantically calling around to various friends on the north side of town, who might come babysit the kids in the waiting room. Our original plan, to drive them down south to hang with the Ruperts, was a total failure due to rush hour traffic. Ask me sometime how much fun it is to time contractions in stop and go traffic on Mopac. Will came through, and Chase passed off Wren and her coloring book, and a sound asleep Jane, and headed back to a room with me. Dave made a heroic drive across town and took the girls to Chick-fil-A, and he and Jessie kept them for the weekend. I have heard that wonderful robot costume parties were enjoyed by all.

I commented to Chase while we were walking up and down the halls, trying to keep my contractions regular, that it really was almost like a date night. We got to have whole uninterrupted conversations and a lot of time to ourselves. There were plentiful ice chips, and repeated offers of beef broth (um... no thanks). Of course, even with insurance, I am not a cheap date.

Things picked up once I got tired of walking around and we started pitocin, and then things really picked up when my doctor asked if I wanted her to break my water. I was in transition before I knew it, and Ben was born at 1:01, on the 22nd, after about 30 minutes of pushing. He was 9 lbs, 3 oz and was yelling right off the bat.

He only wants to sleep when someone's holding him, and he only wants to eat about every 27 minutes. None of the hats I knit for him fit at all- in fact they look like yarmulkes. He has spit up on me 8 times and not once on Chase.

But overall he's pretty great. I think we'll keep him.

We are all enormously grateful for the prayers and the hard work of our friends and family. You guys have loved us and cared for us and continue to do so and we are overwhelmed. Thank you all so much.

miscellany

2010-10-15T12:50:00.000-07:00

Today was my first morning off work with the girls in school.

This is my blanket, in the backyard. There were cookies, diet coke, library books and knitting. Really I could not ask for anything else. Except maybe a slobbery dog to come hover over me longingly with a tennis ball in her mouth every 5 minutes.

And this afternoon, AFTER school, this is what I paid for 10 minutes of this morning's peace. Unless Jane is unconscious, 10 minutes of silence might as well be a wailing alarm that something bad is happening.

In this case it wasn't really so bad. Just a good time with a canister full of flour, a bunch of utensils, and a bowl of rising bread dough. The bread survived, and will be eaten for dinner. Most of the flour, however, was either on Jane, on the dirty counter, or on the floor.

I always look on the bright side though- it could have been eggs.

And in other much more fun and exciting news- Wren's training wheels! They came off last night, after a long ride around the neighborhood with Chase. They were riding in the high school parking lot, which was empty after band practice, and Wren finally decided she was READY. No falls so far, and she's going to wear some jeans and try again tonight!

Weekend Walk

2010-10-10T19:32:00.000-07:00

Chase is really really good at getting us up and out of the house on weekend mornings. I generally want to hang out, putter in the kitchen, tackle some household chores, and stuff like that. Experience has shown us that my version of weekending is a VERY bad idea because it takes the kids approximately 45 minutes of watching me "putter" to get stir crazy, destructive, and as happy to play nicely together as wet cats in a bag.

Anyway, Saturday morning we went to the giant Walnut Creek park. I've never been, even though it's actually really close to our house. Chase has been mountain biking there before, and we were both kind of wondering how great an idea it is for the city to combine mountain biking, family hiking and off leash dog trails...

We only had one near miss- with Jane almost barreling into a biker, who had to swerve out of her way. Most of the time we could hear them coming and get the girls to the side of the trail. Ramona, of course, remains mysteriously terrified of all wheeled conveyances, and stayed well out of the bikers way.

And here's my glamor shot- nearly 39 weeks pregnant. I was thinking a 10/10/10 baby might be kind of fun, but so far this weekend, the hiking has only yielded swollen ankles, not contractions. I'm not quite to the "jumping jacks" stage yet, and I am already completely filled with awe and wonder for those women who can submit to the crazy time game of pregnancy with their sanity and grace intact. These are not mythical creatures- I actually know real people who have managed to go significantly OVERDUE without killing or scarring loved ones.

I know. It baffles me too. Anyway, I'm not that crazy yet. But a word of warning- if you're not visibly pregnant, you definitely DON'T want to park in one of the two expectant mother spots at HEB when I'm around. I will harangue you like a fishwife, and I'm not afraid to work blue.

miscellany

2010-10-09T08:00:00.000-07:00

Some freezer paper onesies... That one on the left is supposed to be a phone, but I got lazy and didn't cut out the rotary dial. It's not like any kid born in 2010 would ever identify it either way.

Made two weekends ago at Crafternoon. I saved the star stencil, if anyone wants it.

Chase and Wren had fun getting the apples ready for apple sauce and apple butter with our new peeler/corer/slicer. I have wanted one of those for a ridiculously long time, and I'm signed up to make two pies for the Halloween bake sale at the girls school next weekend, so I'm definitely going to get my money's worth.

And of course we overfilled a few of our apple butter jars so they didn't seal.

WHAT A DRAG. Now we'll just have to eat it ourselves.

Possibly with spoons. But I made some bread just in case.

Fall is my favorite

2010-10-07T20:02:00.000-07:00

even if I can't fit into any of my favorite sweaters. Or my favorite sweatpants, for that matter. I've officially reached the point at which I can no longer fit into even my maternity clothes.

I've also reached the mental point, inevitable in any pregnancy, at which the physical discomforts of being 9 months pregnant start to outweigh the terror of the pain of childbirth and the stress of the overwhelming life change a newborn brings. It's pretty miraculous really. I know lots of people say from the beginning "Oh I just can't wait to hold my little bundle in my arms!" and obviously I feel that way too, or I wouldn't be in this position.

But. But.

Is there really a day you could wake up and say "TODAY is the day I feel ready to be a mother of three"?

Or say "RIGHT NOW is when I went to experience that most intense pain again. Right this minute would be good. I finished hanging up all the pictures and there's really nothing else on my to do list today."

Or maybe "You know I feel pretty well rested. I'm ready to not sleep again for more than 3 hours at a stretch for a few months..."

Yeah. So for lots of ladies, me included, I think the abject miseries of congestion, pelvic separation, diminished lung capacity, intermittent (and always exciting!) jabs to the kidneys, tiny bladder, nausea, insomnia, and exhaustion are just a thoughtful gentle, necessary nudge toward embracing new parenthood.

I myself am longing to meet this new person. And not just because I am a victim of "turtle on its back" syndrome every time I try to turn over at night. I am so curious to know this baby, and so excited to welcome it into our family.

And also I love fall so much, and there's really only one thing (besides a fireplace in my house) that could make it better.

And that would be if someone else had to come finish potty training Jane while I was in the hospital.

Any day now, baby.

These Days

2010-10-07T09:01:00.000-07:00

Long days at school make for very tired girls at home. Last week Jane fell asleep standing up. Leaning against the couch, right before dinner time.

They also make for some very mischievous girls. Girls who find the button box and scatter buttons all over the house without asking.

And girls who build a ladder, climb up on the counter, find the blueberry pancakes, and eat all the blueberries out.

At least they know what they like. I've started having to hide the cookie jar on top of the fridge, but who knows how long that will work. They are like velociraptors. Always learning.

defeating the curse

2010-10-04T09:03:00.000-07:00

This quilt was cursed from the start, and I really thought I'd never finish it. I made all kinds of mistakes- messed up the tension while quilting, ripped it out, tied it, ripped it out, and on and on.

But I persevered, and ended up doing big fat fast embroidery quilting instead of my usual hand quilting, and I'm really happy with it. In spite of all its faults. Mostly I'm happy that it's done, and that I could give a good friend a gift that says "I'm so excited about your new baby!"

Because I am!

In non-quilting news, I bought a bunch of pumpkin puree today. And this morning Chase and I made apple butter. My house smells like fall!

I think I'm trying to trick our immune systems into stepping up- we're all feeling kind of gross and sick but hopefully will be on the mend soon. We absolutely cannot be sick when it's so incredibly beautiful outside!

Wren's Present for Jane

2010-09-28T06:11:00.000-07:00

This is about a month late, but I wanted to share the gift Wren gave Jane for her birthday.

When we started talking about what Wren might want to make Jane for her birthday, we tried to think about the things the girls love to do together, what games they like playing together the most. Any version of 'hide and seek' came out way on top, in Wren's opinion.

By my kids interpretation, hide and seek encompasses the hiding and subsequent seeking of pretty much anything. It could be each other, but it's just as often ponies, dinosaurs, my knitting needles, etc. It's really great that they love to play with each other, and it also means I can generally figure out -why- there's a lego house in the silverware drawer.

It doesn't mean I can find my knitting needles, but oh well.

Wren and I settled on an egg hunt game as a good present for Jane, and that meant we needed to find some eggs. My grandmother Alley has a little wire chicken in her house that is full of straw and a collection of the most beautiful marble eggs. They are a rainbow of colors, so cool and heavy to hold. I have so many sensory memories of those eggs- hiding them all over the house when we needed a rainy day game.

Somehow I don't really happen upon rainbowed marble eggs that often in my daily life, so that was pretty much out. Also, we have tile floors. But Wren and I did find some nice heavy wooden eggs in the craft store.

She went to town- stripes, polka dots, rainbows. The eggs are perfect. And when my mom was in town for the party she helped me put a coat of Mod Podge on top and we were done.

I got the chicken from an etsy shop that I now cannot find. That's what I get for waiting a month to document it. And when I finally went to take a picture of the finished product, most of the eggs we painted were, of course, hiding. But you get the idea.

Jane loved it, and they do in fact play with it all the time.

In other news, yes. I am still very pregnant. Thanks for asking.

Catalina Whine Mixer

2010-09-20T13:16:00.000-07:00

We've been visiting whine country lately. Basically our whole family, me included, has been a whinefest.

And I don't want to name names (JANE JANE JANE) but one of us in particular (JANE) has been especially challenging. This is her first year with three mornings in school, and although she LOVES school, she is also very very tired by the time it's over. And fractious. And loud.

Obviously life is a bit overwhelming and confusing for her right now- new sibling any minute, new house, new school routine. She's seeing a lot less of Wren than she's used to, and when she does see her, Wren is tired too from spending a long day in Kindergarten.

So in the interests of not waddling off and leaving her at the circulation desk the next time she throws 'Good Dog Carl' across the library, let's remember some charming things about Janey.

She calls ambulances "Alien Trucks' for some completely mysterious reason.
She still calls clouds "Clowns" and talks worriedly about "Thunderclowns" when it looks rainy.
She LOVES her twinkle toes, and she LOVES her monkey boots. She really just loves shoes in general, although she will not keep them on her damn feet when we're out and about.
She is really afraid of 'piders' and anything that might potentially be a 'pider.' She's always on the lookout for them, and the face she makes when she tells you about a spider sighting is indescribably hilarious.
She is also still not a fan of heights. At all. And she's stubborn, of course, so no one can convince her to try something out once she's decided she won't like it. I respect that, and I'm also pretty glad that my little daredevil at least has ONE thing she won't do.

She is the most openly affectionate kid I've ever known. She regularly hugs strangers, usually taking them off guard by grabbing them around their legs and kissing them. When people she loves leave our house, we have to peel her off of them, while they dash for the door.
Out of nowhere she will grab your arm or hand and hug as tight as she can, and kiss whatever she can reach. She just loves so INTENSELY.
She does everything intensely, including talking, eating, singing, helping in the kitchen, and of course potty training.
Every single time she goes to the bathroom, she YELLS about the outcome. I'm sure our housemate appreciates the updates.
She eats raw dough of any kind whenever she can get it. She would rather eat bread dough off the counter than eat pizza later that night.
Although she will still eat the hell out of that pizza. Pizzas, like most other foods, are strictly 'top down' consumption for Jane. She starts at the top and works her way down, so with a pizza she eats cheese and toppings first, then she smears the sauce on her face, then she eats the crust.
It's sort of a cupcake approach to life.

She is a LOT of person for a little body sometimes. And she's a lot of three year old for 8 months pregnant me. This next month is going to be a challenging one, no matter what, but I know Jane will bring us so much joy (in addition to the crazy) and I am so grateful for it. And at least I can look forward to a nice vacation at the hospital in another few weeks.

Saturday Chores

2010-09-18T13:07:00.000-07:00

I think this counts as nesting, right?

Adventures in Home Canning

2010-09-15T06:21:00.000-07:00

Or how I learned to stop worrying and love botulism.

So previously when we've done tomato sauce we've just frozen it. Mostly because I think my Ma Ingalls thriftiness would be slightly counterbalanced by keeping my family on respirators for six months, following paralysis.

But this time around our freezer is already totally stuffed, we can't afford a chest freezer, and I haven't even started trying to freeze dinners for next month's due date, much less ice cube trays of baby food. And of course we're going to need room for milk in there too.

If I just disgusted you, then I probably shouldn't mention that time we ran out of regular milk while I was making mac and cheese and I did a little swap...

Yeah Chase doesn't like to talk about that.

ANYWAY. If this picture doesn't fill you with terror, I don't know what's wrong with you. Do you see all those warnings on there? Pretty much all of them end with "IF YOU FAIL YOUR HOUSE WILL EXPLODE!!! JUST BUY TOMATO SAUCE FROM THE STORE YOU IDIOT."

And you can't even hear the awful hissing noises it was making.

Here's the first batch of sauce- I more or less used this roasted tomato sauce recipe from Catherine Newman, although my amounts weren't anywhere near exact, and we threw a bunch of basil in there too. $3.84 of tomatoes made 5 pints and 5 half pints, and so far none of them have exploded!

Those jars are waiting for lids, of course, and you can already see in that picture why at least two from that batch failed. I didn't leave enough headspace at the top of the jars. You'd think I might take time out of lovingly photographing crap in my kitchen to sort of just look at it, and see if I'm doing it wrong.

Oh well.

We made pizza for dinner last night, once we ran out of jars and still had tomato sauce. Honestly the sauce is pretty good. And even though I'm going to end up freezing some of it anyway, due to various canning fails, I'm still glad we mustered up the courage for an inaugural pressure canner run. Maybe the next time won't be quite as terrifying.

Anybody want to borrow it?

silver lining

2010-09-14T07:31:00.001-07:00

In the midst of what was a very difficult week for our family, there was a definite bright spot. We got to spend quite a few hours in a lovely city.

Lots of unbelievably delicious food, although not a lot of air conditioning. I can't wait to go back, under better circumstances.

Believe me, I am bringing a list of restaurants, as well as a game schedule for Tulane, the Saints, LSU, Ole Miss, and anybody else whose win or loss might conceivably make people MORE crazy on the streets. Maybe the trick is to go on a Tuesday?

Either way, I'll watch out for the sousaphone players. Those guys are crazy.

We are happy to be home, and crossing our fingers for a very uneventful few weeks.

party time!

2010-09-08T07:29:00.000-07:00

Good morning sunshine!

We don't have many pictures of the party- I never can remember to actually -take- pictures after charging the camera.

We mostly have before and after pictures. Here's Janey, still in her PJs. Chase had her new dollhouse, with the stain -just- dry, wrapped up in a big pink bow on the table when she woke up.

This was Jane's standard "present opening" face. It's pretty great. She also did a little dance. I think in this picture she's opening a My Little Pony from Nana.

The girls are eating some party food before the guests arrive. Jane is taking a break from her waffles to eat a lollipop, but we let that kind of thing slide on a birthday.

Wren was a pretty great sport about a "Jane gets all the attention and presents" day, and I was proud of her for being such a sweetheart. Even if you don't have the kind of personality that enjoys the spotlight, a little sister's birthday can be kind of a challenge.

Especially when you're little sister is given a pair of Twinkle Toes shoes. Which are either the ugliest most horrible or loveliest most wonderful things you have ever seen, depending entirely on whether or not you are a little girl. Thanks Aunt Anne! I will always be able to find Jane in the dark now. In fact I'm surprised we can talk her into taking them off to go to sleep at night.

Overall it was a pretty awesome birthday, and it took Jane about 8 hours to wind down from all the excitement. She really did not stop talking or making noise for about 3 hours straight. Just constant. I know parents say that kind of thing, but I am serious. No hyperbole. Just CONSTANT. My mom was here with us for the weekend and I think she was a little floored by it. I was forced to conclude she'd thought I'd been exaggerating about Jane's volume and energy level. Nope Nana, and when can you babysit again?

It was an auspicious start for another year with our precious wonderful amazing Jane. I am so incredibly grateful to have her in our lives- she is a constant surprise and joy, and I pray we will have the wisdom and patience and grace to be the parents she needs this year, as a big three year old!

First Day of School

2010-09-07T06:58:00.000-07:00

I'm only a week late with this post-

Happily for Wren, we were not actually late to school. Wren's bedtime prayer the night before school included asking God that she please not be late for class. Five seems kind of young for punctuality anxiety, but Wren is just a very particular child, I guess.

For the first week of school classes dismissed at 12, so really this next week will be our first experience with the full day of school, which includes separate dismissal times, an hour apart, for the girls. I guess Jane and I can go hang out in the library for a while.

Yeah she looks like she'll settle right down and quietly read a book for an hour, doesn't she?

The girls are both doing great so far. No accidents for Jane (Continence WIN!) and Wren only cried once. So overall a great start to Fall! Now for some actual Fall weather...

walk in the woods

2010-09-05T20:22:00.000-07:00

We went to Mayfield Park to explore early on Saturday morning. We were up with the watercolor painters and the wedding photographers, but we didn't stick around the ponds.

We headed for the woods.

Wren found a spot where the trail was bordered on one side with ferns and the other with cacti.

We crossed a few creeks.

Before finding one Wren wanted to build a dam in.

And Jane wanted to fish in. And of course take her skirt off in.

But we didn't leave without seeing the peacocks! You can hear them brawking even from far away in the woods, and when you're walking along, and just happen to glance up and see a tree full of them... ! It's a bit unnerving.

Birthday Girl

2010-08-23T18:51:00.000-07:00

Jane's birthday party is this weekend, and she is really looking forward to it.

That might be an understatement.

One of my favorite birthday traditions with the kids is our much more low-key fancy family birthday dinner. Today is Jane's actual birthday, and so we had fancy dinner tonight.

It's just us, and we eat the birthday girl's favorite dinner on our very best china. We light candles, and, in a tradition we stole from the Metcalfs, we all say something we really love about the birthday girl. I know that sounds cheesy, but I think it should be required for birthdays. I LOVE it. I love telling people the things I really do like about them, but otherwise might not think to say, and I love hearing it of course. I love that our girls will think this is normal birthday behavior.

Anyway, this year Jane's favorite meal is macaroni and cheese with broccoli and fish sticks.

FANCY.

Last year she asked for beans and rice...she keeps us guessing.

She asked for chocolate cake with chocolate icing, and other than forgetting the salt, I think it went pretty well. Strangely, kids don't really complain about missing salt in their chocolate cake.

The birthday girl also got to open one gift, and specifically in this case that gift was a weird robotic duckling that Chase bought at Target about 20 minutes previously, and wrapped in a leftover moving box and some duct tape. Hurray for planning ahead!

The girls both loved it. Insanely loved it. It jerkily flaps its wings, emits creepy "quack" like sounds, and overall is just about the definition of inevitable toy recall.

It is currently nesting in Jane's bed, where Wren is also sleeping for the night, so she can help take care of it. It needs to be bottle fed, you know, like all baby ducks do.

And Chase and I have to go do the dishes, since FANCY dishes can't go in the dishwasher.

How much is in a peck, again?

2010-08-19T13:36:00.000-07:00

So pickles...

It's possible I've gone slightly pickle crazy. First I read this and then I read this, and then I found some pickling cucumbers and our house hasn't really smelled the same since.

I have eaten a dill pickle and sharp cheddar cheese sandwich nearly every day of this pregnancy. Early on, that (or a cheeseburger) were frequently the only things I could even think of eating without throwing up. Now, I can get by okay on a steady diet of peaches, plums, watermelon, snickers and cinnamon toast- but I still like my favorite sandwich at least every few days. I prefer it toasted, on my homemade bread, if I can get it. And on HEB bread with lots of mayo if I can't.

Yeah I'll pause here so all you non-pregnant people can gag quietly to yourselves. The pregnant women are either thinking "Yum" or "It could be worse. I craved red Georgia clay, dryer lint and yak butter tea."

Moving on. Pickles. I love them.

Look at all that dill! And that pepper! I don't think I'll be able to bring myself to actually can them, in case the water bath takes away some of the crispness.

Which is fine because preserving food is really only necessary for foods that have a slight chance of going bad, and these poor pickles are not long for this world.

Here's the bread and butter pickles in process, before I gave them their little ice bath. These are more for my dad than for me. Every party growing up at my grandparents' house had the mandatory tray of black olives and bread and butter pickles. I remember putting the olives on my fingers and walking around pretending I had shut my hand in a door...probably not actually as hilarious as I thought at the time, but ANYWAY- my dad loves bread and butter pickles, and I love my dad, and he is (possibly?) coming to town to visit us for Janey's birthday in a week or two!

I gave my mom the results of our less than stellar salsa making experiment, so I'm going to give my dad some pickles.

Sidenote: the salsa was not stellar from my perspective, because it ended up tasting exactly like Pace Picante Sauce... but it was absolutely great from my mom's perspective. Since it tastes exactly like Pace Picante Sauce. So there you go. Different strokes, or whatever.

Aren't the bread and butters adorable? Posing there next to bruised bananas and an empty cookie jar? I think it's a good illustration of how my priorities become skewed as I enter the home stretch of this pregnancy. Two months, and many many pickles to go.

Another sidenote: I would like to take this opportunity to apologize to our new housemate Molly, for the pervasive and constant pickle odor in our shared living space. I'm just waiting for the dills to get -slightly- dillier before I jar them.

I wish I could say that this is temporary insanity, and in fact the smelly pickle part probably is very temporary. But I don't want to lead her to expect a general level of normalcy that my family is not capable of providing. This morning Molly woke to Ramona panting longingly and loudly two inches from her door, and walked into a bathroom that was mysteriously scattered with various tiny ponies. I see no point in raising unrealistic expectations.

What I'm working on

2010-08-16T18:47:00.000-07:00

besides not going crazy in these last few weeks of summer with the kids at home...

- Firstly, I'm working on blogging in LIST form, because my brain is mush at the end of the day.

- Secondly, I'm working on potty training Jane. Oh wait what? Still? Wasn't that um... more than a YEAR AGO that I proclaimed success? Yeah not so much. August 2010 me looks back pityingly on smug July 2009 me. Although August 2010 me is also wondering what that damp spot on the rug is...

- I'm also working on not taking it personally when people tell me how young/easily their kids potty trained. This goes double if the people talking are related to me, or actually talking ABOUT me as a baby. THANKS MOM.

- Another related item... I'm working on not stressing out about it, because Jane has to be potty trained before school starts in oh my God TWO WEEKS and there are just not enough gummi bears in the world to bribe that child. She is so stubborn. At least I know who will be standing up to peer pressure in those DARE classes in middle school. Oh yeah, she's gonna get a shirt. I mean, assuming she's not home schooled because she won't stop shitting in her pants.

- MOVING ON. I'm working on a quilt...

This one, specifically. Inspired by all the bunting I saw at the Renegade Craft Fair in LA, and by a quilt tutorial I saw that I cannot currently find the link for but I'm trying. I'll post it in the comments if I can turn it up.

Anyway, I love bunting, I don't care how trendy it is. And as evidenced by Wren's duvet cover, I love rainbows too, and we had all the scrap fabric left over from that, so I may end up making a few more of these. I bound this in a light yellow, but after looking at it for a bit I decided the yellow was wrong. I took it off and I'm going to bind it again in the navy blue I think... Or red?

- I'm (accidentally) working on things that look like faces.

This is a diaper cover. A weirdly anthropomorphic diaper cover. The pattern didn't mention that it was going to look like a little face. A face that is destined to go on my tiny baby's bottom, but whatever. Only the best for you, fetus! The pattern was a free download from somewhere, I can't remember. It was fine. Oh I am just not in blogging mode right now- sorry. GET OFF MY BACK GUYS. It's like a million degrees outside and I am really pregnant and did I mention that Jane still pees on the floor?

She does.

I'm working on other stuff but this is super long already. Maybe I'll break this into a couple of posts. I kind of lost my motivation because Chase just called and asked what kind of blizzard I wanted and now I'm just sort of staring off, in a haze, dreaming about the blizzard that will soon be mine. Also we're about to watch the VERY LAST EPISODE of the Wire. I better get some closure on this. That's all I'm saying.

CLOSURE, BALTIMORE.

trip miscellany

2010-08-05T09:27:00.001-07:00

Here are a few moments from our L.A. trip that didn't really seem to fit in another post.

The girls first (at least the first that they remember) In and Out burgers. Of the many things I miss about Southern California, In and Out is definitely up there. I somehow resisted the Double Double Animal Style, but the girls both quickly devoured theirs.

My trip knitting was a pair of very colorful leggings, that will hopefully fit a couple of tiny baby legs in a few months. I am always so drawn to earthy fall and autumn colors when I'm yarn shopping- it was fun to pick something super bright and colorful for a change.

This park in South Pas was one of my favorite places to go with baby Wren when we lived in Highland Park. The play area is completely shaded by giant sycamore trees, and there are so many fun play structures for all different ages- plus a giant sandbox with a permanent batch of communal toys. It was great to be back there with both girls. Wren immediately make friends, of course, and then made us really proud by insisting to her new older friends that Jane not be left behind in their game.

And here we are at LAX- the sight of many a miserable stand by experience when we lived in L.A. It was pretty great to be flying with tickets, and miraculously the girls kept each other relatively entertained during our wait times.

Unfortunately, the flight we boarded after this picture was also the flight we left poor Janey's special baby blanket on. I checked at Target, and of course they don't make that blanket anymore. It was the first thing I ever bought for Jane, blue of course, because the first ultrasound said we'd be having a boy. I think I'm more sad about losing it than she is, but I wish US Airways could find it. Apparently, they're not super great about finding lost items.

Oh well. Probably still better than flying stand by. And overall we had a GREAT trip. Thanks to our hosts and our wonderful friends. We miss you guys. Come visit us!

transformation

2010-08-03T14:18:00.000-07:00

I found half a quart of chalkboard paint when I was cleaning out the pantry of our old house. I also find lots of other things that I will never ever talk about or think of again...

But chalkboard paint! Hurray!

I slapped several coats on the top of this gross old kid's table that had been living outside for the last two years.

In the table's defense, it's actually pretty nice. It's just been abused.

Anyway, now it's enjoying new life as the art table! It's right next to the kitchen table, and so far this arrangement is working pretty well. Better than keeping the paints up high in the kids' room. At least since Jane learned to build a ladder a few months ago and we ended up with a purple floor.

Now I can keep an eye on paint, staple, glue and glitter access, and in a few weeks when school starts, Wren will have a pretty central spot to sit down and do all her super intense kindergarten homework.

I have a feeling she's going to have some help. And I also have a feeling the scissors are going to have to move.

lemonade and old friends

2010-07-30T06:28:00.000-07:00

Wren and Finn had a blast knocking lemons off our friends' tree, and then with all those lemons of course they had to make some lemonade.

Jeremy is demonstrating the process, with typical gratuitous shirtlessness. I guess that's what Colorado and Arkansas do to a man.

The girls were willing, but lacked some necessary muscle for the not quite ripe lemons. However, they persevered until they had squoozen their whole supply.

A lull in the action gave Finn a chance to use such pick up lines as "I got this toy on one of my ten airplane rides."

Wren was suitably impressed. She seemed less enchanted by his discourse on the rooting habits of avocado seedlings, but you can't win them all. And overall I'd say he made a pretty great impression. She hasn't talked about much else but Finn, and it's a little bit heartbreaking that they like each other so much, since it's pretty much a star (or at least distance) crossed romance. At least 5 year olds have short attention spans.

Jane and Scout are more at the playing "next to" each other phase, which can still be pretty fun.

And this thoughtful family went ahead and had a little girl, to go with our expected little boy in the fall. Thanks guys! If our scheming is going to work out though, you will have to move to Texas. There are less lemons, but overall more shirts. At least in Central Texas. I won't speak to the gulf coast area.

Pacific Palisades

2010-07-29T07:32:00.000-07:00

We're home from our trip to visit friends in California. We had a really wonderful time, although of course it was bittersweet to see all the babies we left turned into kids we only know through blogs and facebook...

And a bit strange to go to a beach that on one hand does not have tar balls, but on the other hand, is always potentially freezing cold.

It warmed up after we'd been there for a bit into a perfect beach day, and the girls had a blast playing with old friends, who basically are really new friends, at least to Jane.

The belly did fine on the beach, and on the trip overall. As a result of moving and vacationing though, my ankles have completely disappeared. My legs just sort of stop at my new and improved enormous feet. Now that we're home I'm trying to train the children as butlers, to bring me everything I might need while I put my feet on a ridiculous stack of pillows and recline, but Wren just cannot grasp the intricacies of grape peeling, and Jane keeps pooping in her pants.

We had a great trip and it's really nice to be home in our new house. I still have stacks of boxes to get to, and pictures to hang up and all that stuff, but we are feeling pretty moved in, as far as essentials go. The next few weeks are going to be crazy for us, with more travel, more work on this house and our old house, and of course Jane's birthday coming up and KINDERGARTEN starting at the end of the month. Insane, I know. Where did this summer go?

At least we went to the beach!

8 Years

2010-07-20T16:14:00.000-07:00

Our eighth anniversary dinner...

I don't remember all the meals in between, but by and large I think they've been pretty great. I love you Chase. Thanks for making the last 8 years the very best.

Moving

2010-07-20T06:34:00.001-07:00

Well, we're all moved in. Mostly.

Let's never speak of this again.

strawberry freezer jam

2010-07-10T06:40:00.000-07:00

I want to post about this later in more detail, but this was my first time making freezer jam, and if you haven't done it, seriously, go do it right now.

I have a copy of the new Saving the Seasons to review, so I've been working my way through some of the canning and preserving recipes. I know I should wait to talk about this until I'm further through the process, but I just absolutely had to talk about the miracle of freezer jam. The recipe in the book is pretty similar in specifics to the one of the Sure Jell package, or this one right here.

This process is so simple and easy, not only do you not have to process the jars, you don't even need to cook the fruit. Crazy! And since it's not cooked, the color stays so bright and clear- it's really really pretty. Invite me over for dinner and I just might give you one of these jars as a hostess gift. You think I'm being nice and generous but really I'm just showing off.

It's phenomenal on PB&J and it keeps in the fridge for three weeks after you thaw it. I know there are all kinds of good reasons to stick to water bath canning, including power outages and energy usage, and just general convenience of storage. But honestly? If my power goes out? I've made my peace with just cracking these open and eating them with a spoon, one at a time.

another rainy day

2010-07-09T10:18:00.001-07:00

Another janky attempt at non-PBS sponsored kid entertainment at my house. Wren found the feltboard in a closet this morning and asked what it was. And at least one Dora's worth of entertainment was born! We measure all units of time by Dora length now. It seems to cause the least confusion.

I'm not saying the rain isn't wonderful. I love the rain, always. I do not love hearing snails crunch under my shoes every third step on the way to my car. I do not love the way rain makes drivers immediately lose their shit and go crazy for ramming.

And I also do not love the way being stuck inside in the middle of the summer tends to drive my kids slowly inexorably insane.

It's supposed to rain again tomorrow, but after that things are looking up. Our moving date is so far rain free, which is good.

And actually the sun just came out a few minutes ago, so we may throw on some suits and get over to the big wading pool at the Y for the rest of the day. You know, as soon as the fairies defeat the dragon and fly back to their cloud castle.

In other rain news- Jane is firm in her believe that 'thunderclouds' are actually 'thunderCLOWNS,' which dovetails nicely with her consuming terror of clowns.

She remembers every time she has ever been in the presence of a clown and she genuinely dreads seeing them, or coming into contact with them ever again. So you know, rainstorms = super fun times with lots of yelling about the 'thunderclowns'coming to get her.

But at least I know what to be for Halloween this year. Thank goodness Chase never threw away all his beloved juggalo gear.

gratitude

2010-07-07T15:49:00.001-07:00

I'm feeling very grateful for all the wonderful birthday wishes and gifts from this amazing group of friends and family. Thanks, you guys.

I had a low key but nice birthday, and succeeded in not talking to anyone unless they were selling me a latte, or a movie ticket or asking me what color I wanted for my pedicure. Introvert dream day. And also vertical picture day, apparently.

And I'm especially grateful to be sharing my birthday this year with the newest Seifert. Welcome Pearl! We are so so glad you're finally here. And yes, the fireworks are definitely for us, just a couple days early.

graham crackers

2010-06-21T07:53:00.000-07:00

I've been wanting to try making graham crackers at home for a while now, and last week I had a long list of important things to do, I think it maybe included cleaning the bathroom? There was definitely some laundry on there. Anyway, the time was obviously right.

I used the recipe from Angry Chicken, with just a few changes. Since we didn't have any barley flour, I just used white, and I always like more cinnamon in everything than normal people do, so I upped that a little bit.

* 1 cup whole wheat flour
* 1 cup white flour
* 1/2 cup brown sugar
* 1 teaspoon baking powder
* 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 1/4 teaspoon cloves
* 1/2 cup chilled butter
* 1/3-1/2 cup milk (you might not use all of this)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and mix the dry ingredients. The girls helped me by pushing the button on the Cuisinart to cut in the butter, and then pouring in the milk, until the dough made a ball. Then you just knead it for a minute until it's smooth, using enough flour to roll it out and not too much to make it dry. Then we let it chill for about 2 hours, just because we were running errands. I think much less time would work too.

We rolled it out, trying to get an even thickness but failing pretty miserably. I guess just try to get them as even as possible, at whatever thickenss you like graham crackers. I cut them with that adorable little thing whose name I don't know. It is from a wooden box of similarly obscure and rarified cooking tools- a wedding present from my gourmet aunt. I always feel so fancy when I use that stuff.

Then the girls sprinkled the squares with our patented cinnamon sugar shaker, and helped me dot them with holes. After that, I suggest you put them in the oven and watch them like a hawk, because they burn really easily. Chicken's recipe said 15 to 25 minutes, but mine didn't take anywhere near that long. Of course mine were all over the place in terms of thickness, so I guess if you take the time to get that part right, you don't have to worry so much about burning them.

On the upside, even the burned ones were delicious. They are a really great snack to have around- not too sweet to make you feel bad for giving them to the kids all day long. Or eating them yourself...

summer days at home

2010-06-18T10:56:00.000-07:00

Even with swim lessons and dance classes and playdates and birthday parties, we are still finding plenty of time to hang around the house.

You would not believe the amount of time I spend everyday expressing admiration of various doodle bugs, milipedes and snails. The number of times I tell Jane to put her pants back on. The number of times I tell Wren she really should not wait until the very last minute to stop what she's doing and run to the bathroom. And of course, the number of times I yell for someone to PLEASE shut the door behind them because we are not air conditioning the neighborhood!

Kids today with their baggy trousers and loud music and not getting off my lawn, etc...

In return, I hear "Mom...I'm bored!" often enough to fulfill my mom's curse upon me in the summer of 1988. Of course, she hoped I would have children who said it as often as I did. Actually I'm not sure we're there yet. This may peak around 8-10? Anyway, it turns out the rules about being bored are the same rules as the ones about 'hurting your own feelings.' That is, you're welcome to do it, but do it somewhere else, preferably with a door that closes. And NEVER in the car.

We've been doing some baking, and some crafting. If we hit a wall this afternoon I might bust out the old playdough recipe. The girls have spray bottles that I occasionally put some food coloring in, and let them go crazy with on the patio.

Chase and I are in the midst of house hunting, preparing to move, packing and all that stuff. I am also experiencing the super fun scatterbrained fuzzyheadedness that is pregnancy, so it feels like I can start a project, but the chances of seeing it through... not so great.

So far, this has one giant exception, and that is making fitted cloth diapers. It's the flip side of that pregnancy coin I guess- the OCD compulsion on nesting stuff. I am cranking these out like you guys would not believe and it is so fun. I'll have to do a post on it soon, but I really want to stop making them just long enough to serve cinnamon toast and watermelon for dinner again, and then get back to the sewing machine...

On the To-Do List

2010-06-10T05:39:00.000-07:00

First up is poor Olive, from two Christmases ago. She has held up well overall, but in some places she is definitely demonstrating the whole "stitch in time" concept.

From here on out, I'll take the time to double stitch dolls as well as any kids apparel I attempt. I'm not even sure how to start patching that. Anyway, she has joined Wren's stick horse in the "out of commission, awaiting repair" corner, which is a sad sad place to be. Most of the other inhabitants are long ignored pairs of Chase's pants.

Next up is another one of these little cushions. I'm very very slowly working my way through the bounty of cut squares from my sister-in-law, and this was the first product.

It has two layers of quilt batting for padding, and the twill tape ties are sandwiched in between the layer of patches and a bottom of muslin. It was relatively fast, but for the next time I might find some interfacing and try this method, which looks very quick and easy.

We have two of the wooden Ikea chairs, and two of the Ikea white plastic death chairs, which I genuinely believe are sentient beings bent on the destruction of anything that sits on them. All of those chairs are regularly pulled into service when we have people over, and since I don't want our guests to feel like we hate them, I'm working to make their seating more comfortable. Also, one of these is my regular sewing chair, and at the midway point of this pregnancy, comfortable seating is becoming more of a priority in my life.

And for a to-do list departure... sunscreen! While this is still crafty, it's definitely a different realm of craftiness.

Yes it's definitely that time of year, and to prove it, the always deeply depressing EWG sunscreen report came out recently. Fun times! Everything in the world is trying to kill your children, especially the things you buy to protect them!

Nothing on the 'approved' list is even remotely affordable in the quantities I need for any given summertime adventure. So out of curiosity Chase and I were reading the ingredients on the one 'good' sunscreen I found at Sun Harvest. It turns out we already have most of them for the batches of deodorant Chase makes pretty frequently. The main thing we're missing is Zinc, and in a few minutes on the internets, he turned up this and this, so we're thinking about trying our hands at making some of our own.

I know, we just get weirder and weirder. Although hopefully less pre-cancerous? Anyway, I'll tell you how it goes.

Wonderful Gifts

2010-06-09T05:23:00.000-07:00

I opened a surprise package the other day (is there anything better, ever?) from my BFF Kelly, and found these -

most adorable of knitted items in the history of the universe.

I personally think it's an example of kind-hearted delusion in a friend, to estimate such a dainty head size for any potential baby of mine. But obviously her motivations are as a good as her knitting.

My own baby knitting has stalled a bit. I might try to use this time for sewing instead, since I can still maneuver my bulk around the sewing machine. I'm also looking to borrow a serger, if anyone has one they could loan me (and teach me how to use?)

I will probably get back into the knitting in the fall, when I'll be a mostly sedentary creature anyway, and when the temperatures are a bit more conducive to sitting around with a pile of wool on my "lap".

Anyway, thank you friend. These hats are wonderful. I will keep Jane and her scissors far away.

Midnight Baking

2010-06-08T05:35:00.000-07:00

One of the best things about baking late at night is eating cupcakes for breakfast.

One of the worst things is being in the middle of The Wire when your husband gets a text from a friend saying it's his birthday, and he hadn't wanted to make any plans, but after all he'd really like it if everyone could meet up at a pub.

It may have been one of the best shows ever, but it just doesn't stack up against emergency-birthday-party-at-a-pub. And what is an emergency party without cupcakes?

So they were made and iced and decorated while Baltimore continued to go to hell in various terrible ways, and then we hit pause and Chase took a plateful to a pub, and I ate one and read my book and went to bed, and the girls had an awesome surprise when they woke up.

It's not even the middle of June and Wren has about 20 new freckles on her face. I remember when she was a new tiny baby and I found her first freckle.

These particular cupcakes lived a short sad life, eaten from the top down, until the icing was gone and -horror- only actual cake was left. Then they were brought inside and set on the corner of the table ("so the ants won't find them and carry them away, Mama") where Ramona quickly sniffed them out and devoured them.

I expect to meet them again pretty soon in the backyard.

First Apron

2010-06-07T06:51:00.000-07:00

I've -almost- made aprons a billion times, even to cutting patterns and picking out trim, but this is the first one I've ever actually completed.

I think now that I've made it to one finished apron, I have a chance at making more. I used the Amy Karol pattern, and my traditional construction style (desperately ironing out creases while Chase gets shoes on the kids and does everything else that needs to get done before we leave for the birthday party).

The fabric is the leftover cherries from the baby kimono I made a few weeks ago, and the pocket is placed based entirely on where I like a pocket to be when I'm cooking, unintentionally taking a baby bump into account, so I don't know how useful it will be to the recipient. I suppose she could always just get pregnant.

If anyone is looking for apron inspiration, there is no better place (outside of Anthropologie) than the Tie One On gallery, which is one of the many places I like to waste time wishing I was better at sewing.