Counting down to Christmas

Every year, we make a Christmas chain. The kids LOVE it. It is definitely their favorite holiday tradition, and they start asking right after Halloween when we'll be making the chain. Of course, we have to wait until the beginning of December, but they get SO excited when they see me break out the red and green paper.
It's a long chain. But that's not why the kids love it. The kids love it for what's written on the chain.

Things like "Enact the Nativity story."

"Do a sneaky nice thing for someone."

"Go lightseeing."

"Make Christmas cookies."

"Read a Christmas story."

"Sing your favorite Christmas carol."

Each morning, when we get up, M2 tears off the day's ring and M1 reads what it says. Today's was "Light the Christmas candles," where we go around the house and light alllll the Christmas candles. The kids love racing from one to the next, smelling them over and over again, and exclaiming over the beauty of each one.

Did I mention that these memories are going to be some of my favorites as well?

I love the Christmas chain...

Christmas Decorating, Act the First

I love decorating, and despite the fact that my favorite holiday is Halloween, I still have more decorations for Christmas.


Some decorations are new.

Some of them I'll leave up all winter.

Some of them I've had for ages and use every year because I love them!

Christmas decorating is a family event around here. Sometimes Oz can be a bit of a Scrooge about it, though, saying that it's 'my' job to do that.

Well, bah humbug to Scrooge! The kids love it, too. They love to race around the house like lunatics while I'm trying to hang stuff on doorways and dig candles out of the drawer. They love to fight over who gets to carry what items into the living room to be set out in random fashion on the floor so I can trip over it when I'm carrying in the next thing. They love to dance and prance around to the holiday music that I always put on while I'm decorating, which freaks out the cats and makes them run rampant around my feet, occasionally sticking a claw into my foot as they make the 90-degree turn around the corner into the hall at 90 mph. I have the perforations to prove it.

Most of all, though, my kids love being kids, and they love to help.
They especially love our toy Nativity set. I have a porcelain one, but with two kittens rampaging around the house like miniature bulls in a Christmas-y china shop, I figured it was safer to leave that in the attic this year.

The kids have very unique ideas about how the Nativity should be set up. M1 likes everything in an orderly fashion - all wise men together, all shepherds together, Mary and Joseph contentedly sittin in the stable - while M2 likes things to fit her fantasy of how things are, and that can change every five minutes.

This was the compromise that was finally reached. No, I'm not sure why Mary is in the manger, but I can assure you that it's M2's doing. I think that maybe the angel is playing the part of midwife in this little scenario and Joseph is pacing around outside the barn waiting for word while the wise men and shepherds are being the relatives with gifts to give the new mom and baby.

But that's just a theory.

This is MOST of our lights this year. For years, all we've had has been the lights on our roof, and it took a lot of finagling to get Oz to even put that up. Last year, we had no lights up at all, which made me sad in a slightly morose and grumpy way. This year, Oz finally bowed to the inevitable and realized that he pretty much does have to do the lights to keep me happy and NOT morose and grumpy, and he figured if he's sentenced to do this, he might as well make it look good. This still isn't done. We're going to put up some green lights this coming weekend. I'll take another picture then!

Thank you, dear. I promise not to be morose and grumpy about the lights this year. Now... anything else is still fair game!
This picture has nothing to do with Christmas other than I took it the same night that we decorated the house. I just like it. I just wish it had brought snow rather than rain!

And now...

...now that Thanksgiving is officially over and I've officially gained 5 pounds - and yes, that is according to that hateful thing in the kitchen who mocks me by flipping back and forth between two numbers for a few seconds before settling on the higher option EVERY time - I shall return to blogging.

Christmas decoration, piano, and gift posts to arrive soon. :)

Thanksgiving

I hope everyone out there had a great Thanksgiving! We didn't do a lot. We went up to visit my 85-year-old grandmother on Tuesday. She lives in Kansas, all by herself in her very own cozy little house, and she even still does all the cooking. She's a great lady, very tough. She's survived the deaths of two husbands, her son, and three of her siblings (her two sisters are both still living).

We came back home on Wednesday, and when I got up on Thursday morning (motivated only by the sound of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, and I've got a story about M2 and that in a moment), I made a couple of pies - apple and cranberry-apricot. I sliced up six apples for the pie because usually five or six is just the right number, and I wound up getting TWO pies out of that. Who'da thunk?? I had made applesauce out of some red apples the other day, and I still have four green apples left. I have apples coming out of my ears!

After the pies got done, we headed over to my mother-in-law's house for dinner there. She cooked a TON. There were just eight of us, but she made a turkey, a ham, tons and tons of stuffing, green bean casserole (which I happen to LOVE), and gravy. We brought mashed potatoes, rolls, and the pies, and she also had a cranberry salad and something called pistachio fluff which was really really good. We all ate till we just about popped.

When it got dark outside, Papa took the kids outside where my brothers-in-law had strung up all the Christmas lights, and M2 got to do the countdown (well, count-UP as the case was) and M1 pushed the button to turn on the lights. Then they ran up and down Papa's ramp - Papa uses a motorized wheelchair to get around - until they were completely worn out.

Now... about M2 and the parade. The very first 'act' in the Macy's show was about 250 cheerleaders, all doing an act to a song. M2 was mesmerized. She sat with her mouth open and was completely silent, which happens about once in a blue moon with her, until she found her voice long enough to say, "I want to be able to do THAT."

This is scary in some ways. I have a potential cheerleader on my hands... who loves shoes, pink, scarves, dancing, arts and crafts, and people. I'm a tomboy mom with a princess daughter... seriously... I need tips!

Busy days and proud moments

I haven't posted anything for a while. It hasn't been deliberate. It's more like there hasn't been anything horribly photo-worthy! But lest you think I've been neglecting you, I wanted to post an update.

First, M1 and I went to the Elsing Museum with our homeschool group on Monday. It was a wonderful place! I'd never even heard of it till this trip got set up, but I'm so glad we went. M1 had a blast. The only thing he hated was that there were so many other people there that he didn't get to ask all the questions he wanted. I foresee many trips back, probably with M2 and/or other friends.

M2 got her progress report for the second quarter this week. All +'s, which is an improvement from earlier this year when she did, in fact, get a minus in some areas (mostly related to asking for help - my kids are fiercely independent. I wonder where they get that... hm...). I'm proud of my Bean!

M1 is almost done with his math book. He's been progressing through math at a rapid pace now that he understands the concepts. This book focuses solely on single-number addition and subtraction, and he's on lesson 24. There are 30 lessons in the book plus extra lessons on time, which we've already covered. I've already ordered the next book in the series, and he can't wait to get started on it. He's been really paying attention to his work to reach that goal and has aced his last two tests!

He's also begun working on human life science, aka anatomy. He had a lot of fun with that this week.



Don't worry. I let him stick these all over me, too.

M2 has a violin concert coming up in a couple of weeks. She's very excited and is working hard on the pieces that she'll be playing. No solos in the Suzuki method (at least at this age), but it's a big deal for her. I'm amazed that my little girl has come so far in just six months, and at the age of 4. Sure, she's probably not moving as quickly as some of the other kids, but in the two group lessons we've managed to attend, she's been by far the youngest! She takes great pride in being able to keep up with 9-year-olds.

Finally, M1 has another accomplishment that he would like everyone to know about.

He did that all by himself with his birthday BB gun today from a distance of about 8 feet. I didn't even think it was cracked till I got close. With a little practice, he's going to be a great shot!

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

When you feel like wasting time in the kitchen

When you feel like wasting hours and hours of your life in the kitchen doing something that even your grandmother would probably look at you and think you're crazy for doing, please read on.

My children, God love 'em, talked me into making pumpkin pie last week.

Not just any plain ol', dump-the-pumpkin-out-of-the-can sort of pie, though.

NOOOoooooo.

That'd be too easy.

They talked me into making pumpkin pie from scratch with a pumpkin they brought home, oh, a month ago (MAN, do gourds last a long time) from a visit to Granny's house. They decided this when they saw a similar pumpkin at the pumpkin patch we visited and the sign beneath it said that it was great for pies.

Yeah, thanks for the info. I needed it. (Insert sarcasm here.)


So I started dissecting the sucker. For the record, this is a Cinderella pumpkin, aka a rouge vif d'etampes pumpkin.

Yeah, I'm not a big fan of the French, with my German heritage and all.

Die, pumpkin, die!


I did get some help. M1 volunteered to scoop out the goop.

He was even more keen to 'help' when he discovered that Vixen apparently thinks pumpkin goop is the shiznit.

Nothing's more fun than hauling a 4-month-old kitten out of the trash can repeatedly because she's headed for the pumpkin innards that stick to her long fur like burs on a dog.

Cats are NOT classy. I don't care what they think of themselves. They're not. Anything that goes dumpster diving goes in a category that's less than classy.

Moving on, I did manage to de-goop the pumpkin, chop it up, throw it in a pot with a bit of water, and simmer it for half an hour while keeping the kitten also de-gooped. It's a good thing.
While the pumpkin was steaming its way to shapeless mush, M1 and I whipped up a batch of pie crust. This is my recipe, translated into first-grade handwriting on a board without lines. It reads:

1. 2 cup flour
2. 1 t. slat (salt)
3. 3/4 cup Crisco
4. Ice water

That is how my grandmother makes pie crust. I am not ever allowed to make it any other way on pain of excommunication from any more of her pies in the future. Given that her pies are fantastic, I can work under those parameters.
This is what the pumpkin looked like after it was done cooking and was draining and steaming in the colander.

And this is what it looked like after I put it back in the pot and mashed the tar out of it. I have anger issues. Pumpkin therapy is a good thing.

And this is what it looked like after I combined it with all the other ingredients (Note to self: Do not use a mixer with pumpkin pie unless you want the kitchen to be redecorated with orange polka-dots), put it in the pie crust, and stuck it in the oven.

And THIS is what my kitchen looked like after all was said and done. Did I mention that one Cinderella pumpkin yields a whole crapload of pumpkin? And did I mention that I may have had to make a second recipe of pie crust for those mini-pies?

I told you you're insane for even thinking about it.

The rewards, however, are sweet.

In case you're ever inclined to be as nutso as I am, I'll give you the recipe, but don't say I didn't warn you!

PUMPKIN PIE - FROM SCRATCH

1 9" pie crust
1 small pie pumpkin
2 eggs
3/4 c. brown sugar, packed
1 T. all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 tsp. ground ginger
1 tsp. ground nutmeg
(Can also use 1 T. pumpkin pie spice instead of cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg combo)
1 12-oz. can evaporated milk

Cut pumpkin in half; remove seeds and pulp. Cut pumpkin into chunks. Place in a saucepan over low heat with 1" of water. Bring to a boil; cover and simmer for 30 minutes or till tender. Drain WELL and remove the peel. Return the pumpkin to the saucepan and mash thoroughly. Drain again, if necessary.

In a large bowl, slightly beat eggs. Add brown sugar, flour, salt, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg (or pumpkin pie spice), 2-3 c. of pumpkin puree, and evaporated milk. Stir well after each addition.

Pour the mixture into the unbaked pie crust. Place foil around the edge of the pie to prevent overbrowning.

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Bake pie 10 minutes, then reduce heat to 350 degrees and bake for another 50 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Remove the foil about 10-15 minutes before the end of cooking to brown the edges of the pie.

Cool and refrigerate.

I'm here, I'm here!

I really am alive, and I haven't forgotten this blog - I've got post ideas coming out my ears! I just haven't had a chance to post anything! This post is actually from two weekends ago.

To really appreciate this post, you have to understand Oklahoma weather.

It's unable to be understood.

That's why we have the National Storm Prediction Center here.

It's been in the 70s or 80s every day for weeks. Hence the short sleeves you'll see in this post. I'm lovin' it!

This doesn't prevent the leaves from falling, though, and we have a tradition in my family that everyone (except me, because I'm the one taking pictures) gets buried in a leaf pile every fall.

My children spend weeks looking forward to Leaf Pile Day.


They really revel in it.

The ritual burial of my son. My daughter wouldn't hold still long enough this year to get herself properly interred.

Because the weather was so unusually warm, M1 and I ran to the store and picked up some groceries (OK, I lie... he carried the basket and did the shopping. I was merely there to supervise, pay, and chauffeur) for a cookout.

Nothing quite like hot dogs and marshmallows after a leaf pile extravaganza.

And those leaf piles transfer quite nicely to the compost bin as well!

Phobias and OCD

Phobias. Obsessive-compulsive disorder. You know you have them. You know it. Deep down in the dark recesses of your mind, you're afraid that you can't control the world. Or at least some little corner of it.

This is triply true if you're a mom and have to worry about things like your kid getting shanked on the school bus by some punk with a record (prayers going out to my friend Dawn right now).

It's nice to be able to control the small stuff.

Like Skittles. This is a blatant endorsement of Skittles here, folks. If you don't like them, step away from the blog. This is the only bag of candy that I actually purchased for Halloween (OK, so it was 50% off the day after Halloween, but that makes it all the sweeter, doesn't it?), because Skittles are delicious and nutritious.

OK, maybe not so much on the nutritious part. But there are fruit flavors and that makes them better for you than other things, like...

Um...

Like....

OK, so maybe they're just not good for you.

Moving on... I cannot eat them all hodge-podge and mixed up together. No-sir-ee. Can't do it. I have to eat the purple ones first... then the red ones... then the green ones... and then the orange and yellow last because they are by far the best. I do the same with Starburst and Jolly Ranchers. Orange and lemon are the best flavors for any sort of hard candy in my less-than-humble opinion. They just aren't allowed to mix.

It's a rule. And I follow the rules.

Mostly.

I'm also a little weird about this thing. That's right - the phone.

You'd think I'd have no problems using the phone since I used to be a reporter and was on the phone almost constantly for eight hours a day.

That's what you get for thinking.

I pretty much hate the phone when I have to be the one to make the calls. I'll answer calls all day long (if the Caller ID tells me I should), but making them is a whole 'nother story. Picking up the phone and dialing someone, especially someone I don't often talk to on the phone or - heaven forbid - someone I've never called before, is tantamount to death by firing squad. I have to clear my throat for fear of sound like a frog if they answer. My heart races. I get clammy hands. I'm never happier than when I hear the sound of an answering machine picking up.

Yes, I am a freak, thanks for asking.

So, just for the record, if I ever call and you're not one of a handful of people who know about my other quirks like smearing whipped cream over the entire piece of pumpkin pie before eating it, don't answer the phone. Let me talk to the happy little machine and call me back. Then I'll answer and be able to be human!

I'm sure all of this says volumes about my mental status, but that's another post for another day, don't you think?

Blurb of a blog - Trick-or-treating

I know I've posted this photo before, but let's just call it a refresher.

This is the kids' costumes in pristine condition. This was a week before Halloween.

By the time we actually made it to Halloween night, I was a pro at this. DD's costume looked the same except she nixed the non-matching necklace and I had considerably more experience with putting that bow in her hair in a way that made it stay there for more than 20 seconds at a time.

DS's costume was another story. There were changes galore, such as:

1. The black hair was not quite so black. We only had enough hair dye to do his hair about 3/4 of the way on a second try, so he had red streaks down the sides on Halloween.
2. No necklace. The pendant fell off during the party at Nan's and we never did find it.
3. Black streaks all over the costume. Hair dye. 'Nuff said.
4. No teeth. They got left behind at the homeschool costume party.
5. No make-up. My sensory-sensitive boy was seriously not okay with make-up and refused to wear any of it ever, ever, EVER again. Moms don't argue with that logic. Usually.

I think that's all.

Despite all the changes, the kids were excited to head to my friend Bubbles' (remember the girl who helped us do the pranking with all the bubble wrap? She's now Bubbles. It fits her personality, anyway!) house for trick-or-treating. They knew several of their friends were going to be there.

Several of my friends were there, too! Please ignore the long hair on the girl in the rear. That's a wig. She wears wigs exceedingly well. Please refer to my previous wine "tasting" party post when I say that I can't say anything more about how I know this. What happens at the wine tasting stays at the wine tasting. Both these ladies were there, and they are both wonderful. Their daughters are adorable, too.


See? Adorable girls, even when they've achieved the zombie-like state that all kids reach after exceeding all possible candy-consumption limits for one small child in an evening and then consuming more.

Trick-or-treating is fun. Stealing the candy later is even better! Hope you all had great Halloweens!

my insanely crazy week

This week has been absolutely nuts! My back and my feet are so glad it's over.

I lie... sort of... the whole week hasn't been nuts. It was just enough crazy to make it feel like the whole week was a sort of time bomb. The whole culmination was Friday.

Friday, the Day of Three Parties.

Party #1: The Preschool Party

M2's school party was Friday morning. As Homeroom Mom, I'm in charge of crafts. That means I have to come up with ideas, resources, and application of an age-appropriate (and skill-appropriate) craft for 19 3- and 4-year-olds. In this case, I decided - with the help of Google - to get some 20-oz. or 1-liter bottles and some orange paint and some of the foam sticker sheets and make bottle pumpkins where the kids shook the orange paint in each bottle and stuck on pumpkin faces. Now... sounds simple enough, right? Right. But me being me, I couldn't stop there. Nooooooooooo.... that'd be far too easy. So I painted the lids of each bottle green. And I had to cut out the eyes and noses and mouths for the kids to stick on, and of course they all had to be a little bit different. And then the lead preschool teacher found a foam pumpkin kit that I decided should be customized with each kid's name (in black glitter glue - more about that later) and turned into necklaces (which means I had to punch out holes and cut strings).

Then and only then was I finally ready for the party.

We did have fun, though.


The assistant teacher is a hoot. She's truly a riot, and the kids love her as much as I do. I'm seriously going to miss both preschool teachers next year when my kids age out. I've had one kid or another in that preschool for three years now!


This is M1 with a girl from M2's class. They get along very, very well. He and that little girl played the entire time, and when I swiped my kids for Party #2, she stood at the edge of the playground and hollered bye to him over and over and over till he had to shut the van door.
Here's another shot of that cute little girl. She's got a sweet personality. M2 likes her just as much as M1.

The owner of the farm we were visiting (which belonged to the family of a classmate) kept trying to make a scarecrow. The kids kept trying to spread the hay as far and wide as possible.

Mom and her baby. The baby is the first girl for the family and is just a doll. She hung out in that sling the whole time just contented as a clam! The lead teacher and the farm owner are chatting in the background.

The resident kid. With the teacher. It is actually a full-grown goat named Precious, and at one point she nibbled the assistant teacher's leg. She just thought it was a student tugging on her pants!

This wee girl riding on a miniature horse was one of the ones who 'adopted' me. It's so darn cute when preschool kids adopt you until you realize that there are three of them waiting for space on your lap and you've only got two legs!

-----

So that party was what I would call a success. Then it was a quick trip home for lunch and a rest for the kids before heading to

Party #2: The Homeschool Party

Our homeschool group meets from 1-3 every Friday at a local community center. It's a bit of a drive for me, from my side of town, but I try to make it as often as I can because M1 really enjoys it. The Halloween party was the biggest event with the group that we've made it to so far, and we participated in a card swap... which meant making approximately 40 cards for 40 kids who attended. MAN, was it crowded.

But, again, it was fun!
Some of the moms dressed up, too, though I wasn't creative enough to come up with something in time.

Even the punch was creative! Gotta love those ice cube hands.

The kids had a costume parade. Later on, they played some games, but M2 took a nasty slip-and-fall right on that hard linoleum floor right before the games started, so we headed out early. It was tragic, and she's got a lovely bruise right beside her left eye, but she'll be all right. Look at those costumes!

After the kids and I got home, I hung out for a little bit and then headed out again for

Party #3: Girls' Night Out!

This was a wine "tasting" event where we were supposed to bring a bottle of wine that described our personality.
This is what I found. It used to hold a German Riesling, but soon I hope it'll hold some flavored oil! It also comes in green and blue, and I may have to go get those. I thought it immensely appropriate for several reasons: One, because it's a cat; two, because it was a German wine; and three, it was a rather small bottle and I'm not much of a wine drinker! It was a good wine, though, and one of the first bottles that was completely emptied.

I was the designated driver for one of the girls in the evening, though, and she got me a giftie:
Ain't it cute?

I'd share what happened at the wine party, but that'd be just wrong. Suffice it to say, I didn't get home till almost 3 a.m.

Trick-or-treating and Halloween photos to come later! Can you believe it's already November??