On being cared for

I love...

23) Houseplants. When I was in HS I worked in a floral dept and as a going away to college present, my boss gave me a golden pothos. "Page" has spawned many offspring! I don't think I've killed any...I've mistreated a few...I have quite the collection now and so does Dave in his classroom! Here at home there's a bunch of pothos, a spruce type tree, a Christmas cactus, this Moses in the basket thing, aloe veras, spider plants and another which I can't identify. I don't think I'll be adding any new plants to the collection any time soon though b/c I'm getting more and more lax about taking care of them! However, I don't think I could ever part w/any of them! I like having greenery in the house...

Off track...

Yes, I'm off track and not posting about something I love, but I had to post about this. I am proud of us =) I can't remember if I said it here but in our quest to eat more meatless meals, I've been haunting the vegetarian cookbook aisle at the library. The trouble for me/us is that we are not huge veggie eaters and we just aren't that into all these weird ingredients...I don't know...maybe I'm not explaining it well. At any rate, I saw this recipe and figured we could try it. For me it would take some 'getting over it', as in I don't think this will taste good together, but I like most of the ingredients, so I'll try. This recipe is from the cookbook titled The Vegetarian 5 Ingredient Gourmet. I like easy, so the 5 ingredient thing caught me! Here it is:

1 1/2 C couscous
2 Tbsp butter
1 C frozen peas, thawed and steamed
1/3 C toasted cashew pieces
1/2 C dark raisins
Boil 3 C of water. Pour the water over the couscous in a heatproof container. Cover and let stand for 15 mins, then fluff w/a fork. Add the remaining ingredients and stir. If it needs more water, stir in a small amount...

Well - first of all, I just nuked the peas. Second of all, I accidentally added way too many cashews! That didn't seem to be a problem for taste, but I'm sure that upped the fat content. I didn't use dark raisins, and I didn't measure. I probably added less than called for. Dave and I liked it a lot! Moses wasn't into the extra stuff, but he did eat the nuts and couscous. The baby did not like the peas at all, but I argue that if he knows it's a veggie, he purposely spits it out. If you hide it he doesn't care of course! Anyway - it wasn't that good as it got cold...we had a lot of leftovers. I guess we could have cut it in half but now we have leftovers =)!

I love...

21) This bread. We recently went to the Natural Ovens 'complex', as I call it, where they also have a thrift store for their products. All the breads are $1.50! I found my favorite bread this last time so I'm a happy camper for a while. I also like how they have organic bread for $1.50, which usually sells for some outrageous price like $6/loaf in the store! Lately a bunch of other families have sort of joined forces to take turns going there (it's like a half hour drive one way) and filling other families' orders. We're pretty lucky to live close to something like this...I'm not so hot at baking bread...imagine that...

I love...

20) This book. We have gotten it from the library 3 times at least! It really is a sweet story and the description of it here doesn't do it a justice. If you have it at your library, I strongly recommend checking it out. If you live in town w/us, you'll have to wait b/c we're not done w/it yet! We also recommend:
Hug
The 39 apartments of Ludwig Van Beethoven
Play Mozart Play
There are so many books that we love around here but these are 3 that we think are pretty special! And yes, we are fascinated w/people who play piano like Daddy. We have also recently discussed the word compose and the suffix -er. Do you have any books that you check out from the library over and over again?

I love..

I love...

I love...

19) Snow! I would never move somewhere else w/o snow!! You can go sledding, snowshoeing, hiking, make snow angels, snow families, snow balls, snow forts and you can just stand in awe of all the beautiful white stuff coming down! Not only that but you can shovel, run your snowblower, get a broom, use a hand plow or pay a neighborhood kid! I'm partial to shoveling or using the hand plow myself. You get to wear boots, snowpants, hats, mittens and long underwear! Then you get to run around and get all warm and unzip your coat if you want! I love snow. One of the guys from church says I have a sickness and he would pray for me...LOL! But I do love snow. I will be sad when it's gone b/c I don't like mud.

I love....

18) Talking to my friend Tracy about our garden-to-be. This summer we are not getting a CSA box. Our family loved it last summer but I am determined to learn more about gardening and to be able to do better myself! Ok, well I doubt I can do better than a farmer but I think I can do well enough for our purposes. Anyway! I've been learning about cold-frame gardening and cold-weather varieties of our favorite veggies, as well as reading the square foot gardening book. Have any of you tried this?? Why am I just hearing about this now? Don't answer that, I already know it's because I spend too much time in the kids' section of the library! (See - one of my monthly resolutions was to read educational books...I'm learning soooo much!) Anyway - the garden-t0-be should include things we are actually going to eat. For instance...
Spinach, carrots, squash, eggplant, peppers, mint, spinach, basil, gr. onions, potatoes, sweet potatoes, a few tomatoes, spinach, cilantro, pumpkins, cukes, peas, zukes, spinach, corn?, brussel sprouts, broccoli and spinach. Are you sensing a theme here?! That's a lot of stuff...I wish I knew more about growing black beans and chickpeas too! I'm not really finding much info on it. My guess is that is something that really doesn't pay off unless you're doing a large amount. Either that or we are just in the wrong climate! Either way I am getting excited about the garden. Tracy has graciously offered to host most of it in her backyard, which sounds like fun b/c then we can visit the garden as well as Tracy and her family! Tracy's got a post up on her blog about her garden dreams, too...check it out if you have time!

I love...

17) Target. I have not bought anything from there for a really really really long time...every time I set foot into that place, all my steely resolve to not buy random stuff turns to vapor and gets sucked into some big fan they have between the double set of glass sliding doors! I don't know why, but I feel like EVERYTHING there is so trendy and cool and I secretly dream about getting locked in there some night. I taught Dave where all the clearance areas are, telling him that I'm saving money and stuff, so don't worry...yeah that was a dumb idea b/c now when I sneak away from him to drool over stuff, he finds me way too quickly! I feel some shame admitting this, but it's true! I do not like how Target is getting to be a trendy Wally World and I do not like how all their clothes are for really skinny people! But I love Target. I'm not selling out, doing an ad for them or whatever, I just...love Target. Sigh. Now you know.

I love...

(I always stall out on these things halfway...I made it to the 15th and now here it is the 19th...some things never change!)
16) simple cleaners for the house. Don't laugh, Mom, I actually do clean! Mostly we've been using vinegar and hot water lately, but the dishwasher gets a Borax/Washing soda mix. Soon the name brand laundry detergent will be gone and we'll make our own for that too. I've used baking soda in the sink and yeah, I don't remember the last time it was that white!! Like having a new sink!! It's a lot easier to use stuff like that than toting around 6 different bottles for different surfaces. Do you have any favorite simple cleaning ideas? I keep meaning to get some essential oils to add to the vinegar solution but I never seem to be going anywhere that has them. This post is perfect for today b/c Moses and I are dancing and cleaning!

I love...

15) These shampoo bars. If you visit the link, please scroll down b/c the first one is for dogs! But I promise the other two are not! I use the rosemary mint one and I recently found a place in town that sells them...so no more traveling a good 35 miles to get them - nice! In fact, when the weather gets nice I could probably bike over. W/more snow coming our way, I know we will be out playing and sledding, but the 50* day we had a while back has got biking on my mind again...

I love....

14) When dreams come true! Ok, no this is not a sappy love-y dove-y one...stick w/me here...when Dave and I first walked through this house, the stove and fridge were in the alcove in the kitchen. We both thought it was so odd to have a hot and cold thing right next to each other...we envisioned in our heads some kind of booth, window seat (minus the window) or something of that nature. Since the hookups for the appliances were there and it would cost money to move them, we didn't. We did, however, say "Someday!" and filed the booth idea away. Well, when we redid the kitchen, we fully intended for the booth to get put in. Long story medium (mine are never short!), it wasn't. So now we had this empty nook and our table in it. Weird. Anyway - a good friend of ours offered to come and do it and he sounded like he was serious and he had the time and he researched it and we made a plan, etc...then he actually did it! In like 3 days or something! We were so shocked that it was actually getting done! DJ (and family) you are a huge blessing to us!! So after all that, DJ shows up to put the booth in. We had told him that we wanted it removable, just in case we try to sell the house someday and people don't like it. Besides, it might be handy to have at our next house!
Well....the walls in our kitchen are plaster. They are not straight. So needless to say, DJ measured in one spot and allowed for a gap but none of us ever thought to measure further down. So after he brought the bench in, it became clear that something was amiss!
"Hmmm...what should we do now?"

"Well, what if we use the piano bench to get it up and back, then just drop it down...?" I just tried to stay out of the way, you know that whole right brain, left brain thing...they needed to attack the problem like men. Aurgh, aurgh aurgh - tool men! So I stood back and took pictures!

The job turned out to be a little longer than anticipated but DJ was so good to us and stayed to finish the job right away. There was a sander involved and lots of grunts as the men laid into that thing! The boys and I had a picnic snack in the living room and watched patiently. Needless to say, we got it in! Also needless to say, it's not coming out! But we don't care...it is so awesome to have something we dreamed of in our home, done and comfortable...It's US. I always wondered what our kids would remember about the house they grew up in and we hope that this is something they will remember and enjoy. Mo is just happy he gets to play in it!
And here's a cute pic of Mo and some friends all lined up eating dinner...look at all those kids we can cram on that thing! So handy!So if you ever get a chance to dine at nuestro casa, that's what's in store for you! And now I've sewn covers for some cushions too....but I think that should be a separate post! Check back later!

I love...

13) Watching sports w/my hubby. Our first big date was to a WI Badgers football game! Long story - maybe I'll write it all out some time...anyway, we are both Badger/Packer/Brewers/Wave fans, obviously, but college basketball is where we don't agree. He's a UNC fan and I'm all about the dynasty know as Duke! LOL - could there be a bigger rivalry? We follow local college hoops too, but come March things get prickly around here! This past summer we went to a AAA baseball game and that was fun too. Now that we have Moses we have to find some cheaper ways to watch live sports and that was a good compromise =) I have been in Fantasy Football and Baseball leagues w/Dave and his family and this year I'm starting one w/my own group of girls who like football! We might not all know a lot about football, but we are fans and we think it would be fun to play w/no guys second guessing our moves. I guess I thought of all this today b/c my favorite player retired - again...Brett Favre says he won't come back due to a pretty big injury. I wore my Favre jersey today and wished there were more sports on TV! We don't get much college basketball coverage! Nor do we have cable for all those classic sports channels or whatever...we went to a high school basketball game a while ago and the best part was seeing Mo freak out over the band!!! It was cool b/c he could go behind them and dance, watch the drummer and the tuba...I think he may be torn when he grows up! LOL - to play a sport, or to play an instrument?? I know he could do both, but it might be tough to be in pep band and be in the sport you are playing for! Well, God knows, right? We're having fun sharing our love of both with him =)!

I love....

12) Being able to speak another language. I went to bilingual bible study this week and I held my own! The funny thing is, we went over the sermon and usually I'm not into reviewing it b/c I feel like I already heard all this...been there, done that....but the other night I got something completely different out of it in another language! God is awesome like that! I was so scared and nervous to go b/c I knew participation would be required...at the beginning of the month they had a service in Spanish and it rocked. I took Mo and he picked out some words that guy was saying that he knew, and he asked me to translate about every 3rd word! LOL - (whispering) "Mom, what's tierra? Mom, what's sal? Mom, what's vida?" I tried my best to answer his questions but also translate the ideas the missionary was outlining. Anyway - I was nervous about the Bible study b/c it's not like service where you can sit in the back and write little notes to yourself to look words up and stuff. It went well, I felt so blessed to hear the points in another way, both figuratively and literally! I can't wait to go again!

I love...

11) Watching for hawks. I remember when I was little my dad always pointed out the hawks when we were driving on the highway. He has such good eyes! Now I'm the one who finds them pretty quickly...I don't know why I like that so much...I also love seeing them fly. No matter what kind of day I am having, seeing a hawk always makes it better! Twice in my life I have seen bald eagles up close and I'm not talking about the zoo...Once when Dave and I were setting up the tent outside of Oshkosh. This eagle was swooping around the edge of the lake our site was on...it was so close! The other time we were in the boat in Waupaca and we slowed down and took a bunch of pics, which didn't turn out too well, but that thing didn't really even move! Oh, man, as I'm typing this I am remembering seeing a bunch of herons and stuff too...and then there was the time that Dave took me to the western part of the state for my birthday - October - we were camping and watching cranes come in. If you like birds like I do, you would love this!! I couldn't not believe how many there were. They taught us to watch them come down for a landing (they sort of wiggle down!), they taught us to count them, they had us get under these camo blankies and hid in the brush...it was so cool! The really crazy thing was that it was negative degrees out and we were camping!! I went to bed that night wearing EVERY SINGLE ITEM of clothing I had brought! I had at least 4 sweaters on and I ate chili for breakfast! LOL!!! Ok, so I guess I'm a little obsessed w/birds...but the one I see most often is hawks...

Jan 09 pics

There were a lot of things to pick from! But I tried to keep it short this time...Enjoy!

Makin' it on Monday

We've been getting back into the swing of things around here...maybe the nice weather has helped? Anyway - yesterday was Monday and I made stuff!
It's not quite done but I quickly sewed up a strap for Mo's ukelele...
The best part was the triangle =) I felt like I was actually moving up in the world since I did this w/o a pattern or anything!


I also made this huge roast...I threw in the carrots and sweet potatoes from our veggie box...this may seem simple to you all but I needed a lot of coaching on this! It was good! Took a long time to cook, but it was good! Mo actually ate a bunch of it w/o much prodding. Again, we're moving up in the world since the kid eats more 'adult' things!
So there ya go...back on track w/the Make it Mondays...

I love...

First of all, I need to ask you if you think God has a funny sense of humor....? After the day I had, I certainly think so!! Remember how yesterday I said I loved living close to stuff? Yeah, about that...so today was even warmer than yesterday! We're talking like 50+*!!! It's really blustery and windy but NICE. I sent out messages and called a bunch of friends to see if anyone wanted to pack up their kids and join us outside! The boys and I met a friend at her new house and we walked by the lake. Mo got some wet feet! But it was super nice and I enjoy catching up w/her soo much...anyway, as we were leaving we got a call from Tracy that she'd like to meet us at a park by our house. The boys and I already had boots in the van so after a quick stop for some dry socks we buzzed over to the park. So in the fuss of getting boots on, putting snacks in my bag, making sure I secured the new cell phone, etc, I unknowingly locked the keys in the van. We climbed over a shrinking glacier and settled in at the park. After about 10 mins, Moses fell in the snow and needed his mittens. I went back to the van and discovered it locked, couldn't find my keys...I think most of you can fill in the blanks here. My keys were on the front seat. D'oh! Anyway - Tracy's hubby was planning to join them for lunch so she said he might be coming soon...but in the meantime she offered me her bike to go home and get an extra key. I figured I'd better do that right away!! So...I did and then her hubby met me at my house to bring me back. So nice of them!! Not only that, but when I got back, Tracy had given Moses the sandwich she had made for her hubby! I felt pretty bad that he got the raw end of the deal - using his lunch hour to rescue me and then losing his sandwich! Which leads me to what I love...
10) Friends who treat me and mine as their own. Dave and I really believe that our friends at church are 'brothers and sisters' in Christ - I know I've talked about this before! We try to treat them as such and the example I just gave shows how they do the same for us.
Well, on another note...I can't believe that it's not even 6 weeks into 2009 and I've logged some miles on the bike blog!!! YIPPEE! Off to a good start...hope you all got outside to enjoy the sun today! Nature's best medicine, right?? Overall today was a good day w/a little drama thrown in! Now the house is quiet and I should go hang some wash. I really wanted to hang it outside, but I'm not sure I can find the lines...guess that will have to wait a month or so!

I love....

9) living close enough to things that we can bike and walk to! Today was relatively warm...I thought it was warmer than it really was - we walked past the bank and it said 34*. Either way, I hooked the boys into the double jogging stroller (thank you Sarah! It is awesome!!!) and we powered our way over the glaciers to Shopko. There and back = 2 miles! It was misty and there was light rain for about 3 minutes but it didn't matter, we kicked Monday's butt!

On another note, I will be posting a Make - It Monday post soon....we were so busy today!!

Making it up as I go...

Can you tell that I've missed blogging? Our laptop battery is on the fritz but since it seems fine right now, I thought I'd squeeze in another post. I have decided that Feb is the month of love and every day I'm going to try and post about something I love. It's already the 8th, so I better get cracking =)!

I LOVE:

1) Kashi oat flakes and wild blueberry cluster cereal.
2) Sliding under LOTS of heavy blankets on the bed!
3) Being a Mom.
4) The new bench in our kitchen!!
5) The anticipation when the drummer 'ting-ting-ting's the cymbals from behind the curtain to start the worship at church! That sound can bring my son running from whatever corner of church! We can jump, dance and sing to our hearts' content...
6) Socks.
7) Reading, but I'm picky about what I read.
8) Planning stuff...I have all these ideas! I love to plan 'outings' w/friends and family! I am always trying to invite everyone to stuff...I don't always pull it off but sometimes a bunch of people show up and it's a lot of fun! I'm thinking of the time we had a bunch of young families over for St. Pat's day and everyone brought green food! The neurotic side of me stressed about having so many little kids here, messing up the house and then people eating in the living room and the kitchen and the litchen (what I've taken to calling the counter between the 2!) etc...but! The green food was so good! The kids were rowdy but we survived! There wasn't any food on furniture issues or anything....the lesson learned was for me to let go and just have fun. I learn that lesson every time but I still forget it!
Ok, there we go...we'll see what tomorrow brings!

Jan - month in review...

Wow - the month has flown by!!  It's been a pretty wild month w/a lot of ups and downs...before I forget, I need to ask you all to pray for my ear.  I went to the dr and I have fluid trapped in it.  There's not much they can do and I really don't have any other symptoms or anything, just ear pain, a little dizziness and I can't hear!!  I'm constantly making Dave look at me to talk or turning the music up...it's annoying.  And it hurts.  So if you could do that, I would be grateful!  I've heard that this can go on for like a month...but I'm believing that won't happen.  Trying to 'psych' myself into getting over it fast!  Well, let's see...what else?  So much to talk about!  I think it would be good to do a review of our goals.

Daily - I give myself/us a D.  We are doing so well eating meatless meals!  I think it's good to mention that Mo enjoys praying too.  A lot of the other stuff is still a work in progress...

Monthly - B+!  Now that list is going well!  The first month of a tight budget went smoothly!  There's always room for improvement...

The big goal is discipline and I think that's a C.  Good days and bad days.  

In other news, we are still waiting for word on an older foster daughter by the end of the month.  We've hung out w/her a few times and think she'll fit into our family =)!   As the days go by I am trying to purge some things from our house to make room, but also pray as I go.  There's no way we can do this w/o God, nor do we want to!  Individually, there's a lot to talk about too - I was in a drama at church this weekend.  It's been so long...!  Even though it seemed like a scramble to memorize lines, Tony and I ROCKED it!  Looking back on it, I know that there were all these distractions while we practiced (feeding kids breakfast, people walking around and talking, total prop change, moving rooms, etc) but we stayed focused.  So I/we can claim a disciplined victory for that!  Dave has been enjoying going to a men's prayer breakfast and water aerobics every week.  We've been really blessed that he's gotten a ride over to the breakfast a few times too - so much easier than catching the bus that early!  Moses is amazing us every day w/his music prowess...did I use that word right??  He is way more melodius than me!  I'll try to hum a song for the boys to identify..."Bah, bah ba dum.." and they're like, "What?!"  But when Mo does it, we all know the song!  Oh well, I knew it wouldn't take long for his music skills to surpass mine!  He's starting to pick letters out when we read, so he knows when we've gotten to a certain word or something.  I can't believe that this kid can do that!  Oh, and Mom, he tells me if I skipped a page when reading too!  PAYBACK.  It doesn't take long for a kid to memorize a book....He is doing so much more for himself these days.  Makes a momma's heart ache for the days when she was needed, but it's good =)  Our foster son is talking our ear off (yes, even my deaf ear!) and climbing!  He just pulls w/all his might and scrapes his belly and then gives you the biggest grin when he gets there!  He's learning a lot about music too, go figure!  Well, I really wanted to post a bunch of pics, but I haven't downloaded them yet.  That will have to wait!  Today it is so warm, I think we're going to go for a walk!  After so many days of negative wind chill temps, we need to get out there and feel the sun on our faces...stay tuned for a few more updates!